John McCormack lost his thirteen-month-old
daughter, Taylor, when a shunt (a valve regulating the flow of
cerebrospinal fluid to and from the brain) placed in her head at birth
failed, and upon admittance to the emergency room, was given less than
proper treatment, largely because of neglect and carelessness by
doctors on call. Taylor died the next day, without once being seen by a
fully licensed physician.

Jen Tosca's son, Brian, was left
permanently disfigured when several surgeries to correct an
inward-turning eye resulted in the loss of the eye altogether. When
questioned, doctors said that Brian's eye "just gave up" and that there
was nothing she could do.

Robena Reid's mother, Marie, was
diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer. While in the
hospital, Marie contracted a "common hospital-acquired infection,"

MRSA
(a type of staph infection). The time it took for her to recover from
this infection interfered with her cancer treatment, and she passed
away shortly thereafter.

Lucilia and Joe Prates' father,
Antonio, also died in part from a hospital-acquired MRSA infection. He
had been admitted for kidney stone removal, but a MRSA infection and a
"medical adverse event" during surgery led to his death just eight
months later.

Quality healthcare can truly change lives. In
these cases, mistakes made during treatment resulted in death or
disfigurement. It is important for patients and their families to know
their rights, and to insist on second opinions and alternative methods
of treatment. The aim of both doctor and patient is to minimize any
chance of error. While this responsibility is and should be legally on
the doctors, patients can protect themselves by being informed and
involved in their own healthcare. In the worst cases, doctors keep the
whole truth from their patients when something begins to go wrong, for
fear of a malpractice suit. Doctors are advised never to admit direct
culpability, so while a doctor may regret having made a poor decision,
patients and their families often do not get the comfort and closure of
a simple apology. The result is lawsuits after the fact, and a deep
distrust of medical professionals.

The focus of the Consumer
Quality Health Council is to encourage a cooperative rather than
hostile doctor-patient relationship. The Council, made up of people
like these presenters who have all been directly affected by poor
healthcare, are galvanized to put legislation in place that will
tighten up the healthcare system and minimize the frequency of such
occurrences. In partnership with Healthcare For All, they are working
to pass four bills that will improve healthcare, two of which are
modeled after similar bills that have proven effective when passed in
other states. The first seeks to reduce medical errors and infections
in hospitals through the use of "checklists of care," a series of steps
to be regularly taken by teams of healthcare providers to decrease
patient harm for given procedures. The second, similarly, would have
healthcare facilities screen high-risk patients for MRSA and take
certain precautions if they test positive. Such an act was particularly
successful in Chicago-area hospitals, where MRSA infection rates were
reduced by 60 percent. The third would establish an expert panel to
determine the prevalence of medication errors in the Commonwealth, and
suggest ways to reduce them. The fourth supports the keeping of health
records electronically, and aims to clarify and enhance privacy
protections within the proposed new system.

Despite all the
presenters have been through, they work for change through the Council
in hopes of improving the healthcare system that failed them and their
loved ones. The consequences of neglect in this area are absolutely
real, as the Council members know too well.