December 23, 2023The Honorable Kathy Hochul Governor of New York State NYS State Capitol Building Albany, NY 12224 Dear Governor Hochul, I watched with interest the news that “Grieving families across New York are fighting what they call an injustice”.  The decades old law that limits payouts in wrongful death lawsuits based on the persons age and / or financial worth. https ..read more

 Communication Starts Early Starting at a young age and even before birth, we communicate with our children.  Verbally or through facial expression, how we communicate with others can trigger happiness, sadness, anger or disappointment. Babies know when we are happy and they know when we are angry.  Even my dog crawls away when I scold him as if he knows I am disappointed or angry.  So, with ..read more

 A Hospital StayWhile a close family member was hospitalized for over a week,  I had the opportunity to remember how scary it is for the family (me) and how vulnerable we become at the mercy of the team caring for the patient.  It would be easy to say this hospital was wonderful.  The nurses were caring and helpful.  They answered questions and came when called.  The doctors performed potentially ..read more

Where Does Your Money Go When You Donate?Each year, all across the country, there are nonprofit organizations looking for funding through donations, events, grants, or sponsorships.  Sometimes we know what they do with the money, such as help pay for cancer research, feed the hungry or build homes for the homeless.  Sometimes we are not sure where the money goes.  The money may support the ..read more

UnionsMany people know that I am now a full-time caregiver for my brother.  This is not how I had planned for my later years, but I am happy to be in his life and able to offer him the care and services he needs. I work for an agency which pays me.  I report my hours to them and am trained by them.  The past few months, I have been called and emailed by healthcare workers unions. They want the ..read more

 Patient Safety Awareness Week, I Remember WhyEach year on March 14th I stop for a moment to remember the death of my son who died because of the care he received (or did not receive) by the healthcare system.  Bleeding for 5 days after a tonsillectomy, Michael died from blood loss and a body full of infection. I believed all 5 doctors who said during that week that he was fine.  But he wasn’t ..read more

 Misdiagnosis a Proven Risk in Emergency Rooms In case you missed it, a recent study reports that about 1 in 18 people are misdiagnosed in emergency rooms each year.  The news article states: “The researchers estimate that 7.4 million misdiagnosis errors are made every year.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i] This was not, nor has it ever been, front page news.  Some may not believe this is ..read more

 Medication Error ExposedRecently I was with someone who picked up their medications from the pharmacy, signed for the five medications and we left. In the car, my passenger looked at the medications and there were six.  One had a name, address, and phone number of someone my passenger didn’t know. At this major chain store pharmacy, a customer was given the wrong medication and walked out with ..read more

One Advocates Opinion Roe Vs Wade is getting plenty of attention now that it has been overturned.  There are marches and demonstration and plenty of angry people and for years there have been marches and demonstrations outside abortion clinics too.  If you wonder if I have an opinion, I do, but you won’t hear it from me.  Let me explain.  It’s the work that I do that keeps me keeping my opinion ..read more

 Articles We Can't IgnoreThere are many academic articles and newspaper reports that we may read, say “wow” and then move on.  Sometimes we won’t read them at all.  But there lies the problem, one I have been trying to address for 25 years.Here is a perfect example.  This article titled    Candida auris Rapidly Recontaminates Surfaces Around Patients’ Beds Despite Cleaning and Disinfection ..read more