Standing up for your patients at all costs

As I’m sure many other Marseille Patient Safety Conference participants did, I experienced many different, strong emotions upon viewing the “The Faces of Medical Errors…From Tears to Transparency: The Story of Lewis Blackman” documentary. From soul-wrenching sadness for a bright, young man’s life cut short, to profound empathy for his suffering family, culminating in overwhelming anger regarding the broken system that allowed a series of poor-made decisions and mismanaged situations lead to a tragic death.

What infuriates me most is the overreaching power the culture of independence, overinflated confidence, and not needing to ask for help that affected the actions of many of the figures involved in Lewis’s resulting sub-par care. While I feel for the medical personnel who will have to live with the guilt that their actions directly or indirectly resulted in a patient’s untimely demise, I do wish we lived in a world where people did not… Continue reading →