Hunter in the Headlines

Today's front page of The Olympian (at least the online front page) features a story about the infection control bill and our testimony yesterday.

Hunter's name is not actually mentioned, referring only to my 15-month-old daughter. I suspect there is a rule or policy against citing a minor's name.

And Children's Hospital is not actually mentioned, referring only to "a Seattle hospital." I suspect there is hesitancy among wealthy newspaper owners to cite by name hospitals with wealthy donors based on a single person's public testimony to a Senate Committee. Who knows?

I promised that Hunter's ordeal at Children's Hospital would become front page news, and it has. This is only the beginning. Little feats of little feet.

How Lucky Can You Get - A Major Media Day and an Apology

Wow! What are the odds that the day Hunter is invited to testify before the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee is the same day that Governor Gregoire shows up to announce the deal reached on medical malpractice reform. It was pretty cool to sit in the same spot she had a few hours earlier and talk to the same group of Senators. A lot of the media stayed around and were still there for our testimony which is going to result in some coverage of Hunter's story. Hunter didn't spit-up on my shirt all day and she got to meet several of the Senators afterwards.
You can hear my testimony at http://www.tvw.org/MediaPlayer/Archived/WME.cfm?EVNum=2006020206&TYPE=A beginning at 3:34:00.

But my favorite part of the day was when Jeanette Harris - representing the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology - apologized to our family during her testimony to the Senate on behalf of other hospitals in the State of Washington for the response we received from the Children's Hospital administrator, Ruth. Ruth had said that if we didn't like the problems that Children's Hospital had with infection control we should move to another part of the country and use a different Children's hospital. Jeanette indicated she thought Ruth's response was "criminal." Apparently others agree that this arrogance has no place in the healthcare system of the State of Washington (hopefully not in any other part of the country either).

Then, when we got back home, I had an email from a Children's Hospital parent who read this blog and was "shocked" to hear what we had gone through. I can tell you that after today, there are a lot of people across our State who share that shock - legislators, lobbyists, journalists, and citizens.

It was a good day because we again took a horrorific experience and used it to help improve healthcare for all. One small step for Hunter, one giant leap...well maybe just one small step for healthcare quality. But the giants are learning that even little tiny feet can trip them up.