Volume I No. 55
 02-22-03
 Mix-Up At Duke University Hospital
 { The Tragic Death of Jessica Santillan } 
 author: Vance Cureton
 © Copyright 2003

 It is not supposed to happen this way.

 A parent takes a seriously ill child to the hospital in hopes that
 a dangerous and extremely risky surgical procedure can save 
 the child's life. And offer hope for a reasonably bright future.

 Then something goes wrong.

 No, the child does not die on the operating room table. But the
 hospital screws up and commits an egregious error. The wrong
 foot is removed to terminate the progress of a deadly bone cancer.
 Or a surgical instrument is left inside a sutured body cavity. Or
 the wrong anethesia is used causing a severe allergic reaction.

 These are the kinds of mistakes that have become all too common
 in American medical practice. And in the case of the innocent
 Jessica Santillan. A careless error - of mismatched blood  - prompted 
 the tragic sequence of events that led to her brain death. And 
 the inevitable decision to terminate all life-support.

 Jessica Santillan was not supposed to die this way. It is cruel. 
 Because the mistake was one that could have - and should have
 been caught. Blood-typing is a simple thing. And it is hard to
 imagine that hospital workers are so stressed that records cannot
 be checked and verified. And then rechecked and verified once
 again. So that such a mistake as the one that caused Jessica 
 Santillan's death should never have happened.

 But before the talk of lawsuits and harsh accusations of 
 medical incompetence foul the airwaves. Simple truths must 
 be made clear. Human beings make mistakes. And mistakes 
 will happen at prestigious institutions such as Duke University 
 Hospital. Just as they can at some anonymous County General.

 But in a hospital the standards must be extremely high. And 
 for good reason. People's lives are at stake. No expense should 
 be spared so that the procedures are in place such that human 
 error is caught -- in time. 

 So that the tragic mistakes that can lead to a senseless death.
 Will no longer pass by unnoticed.

 It is as simple as that.
 

 ReadingPost.Com
 © Copyright 2003

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