Sorrel King - Josies Story: A Mothers Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe

Praise for Josies Story:

Winner of the Books for a Better Life Award for First Book One of The Wall Street Journals Best Health Books of the Year

Wrenching but inspiring King is a passionate advocate for patients.

Laura Landro, The Wall Street Journal

A wonderful book, written with deep insight into the uncertain world of medicine. The tale of this family grips the heart and illuminates the mind.

Dr. Jerome Groopman, author of How Doctors Think

Reading Josies Story, I cried at Sorrel Kings unflinching descriptions of grief and the anguish that comes with losing a child. But when she takes the medical error that killed her daughter Josie and turns her tragedy into a crusade to help avoid such errors from taking someone elses child, I cheered. For the Kings, for Josie, for all of us. Everyone should read this book, not just for what it shows us about the human spirit, but because we all need to hear Josies story and be better people for having heard it.

Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle

What started out as a small endeavor is now a nationally recognized organization dedicated to increasing patient safety and eliminating medical errors King is an outspoken advocate.

Ginger Adams Otis, New York Post

The book is part indictment, part celebration, and part catharsis King carries a powerful message of an institutional failure that affects hospitals as much as any other institution: communication.

Bill McKelway, Richmond Times-Dispatch

Josies Story underscores a reality that we are too often encouraged to forget: doctors and nurses are just human and make mistakes Parents, read Josies Story.

Maria Andreu, The Star-Ledger (Newark)

This painful but inspiring memoir is a compelling drama of family grief amid the dysfunctional U.S. health care system.

Publishers Weekly

King excels in capturing small moments freighted with poignancy Eschewing literary stylishness, King tells her story with a straightforward style that makes it all the more powerful.

Kirkus Reviews

King is an extraordinary woman, who took a paralyzing eventthe medical accident that killed her eighteen-month-old daughter, Josieand turned it into a national crusade. In this moving, never preachy or strident memoir, she recounts Josies experience, the evolution of the foundation, and the principles of the so-called Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP) in practice today in hundreds of hospitals, thanks to Josie and her mom.

Booklist (starred review)

A riveting and poignant account of the impact of preventable harm in our health care system. It should compel us to wait no longer to transform the places where medical care is provided.

Rosemary Gibson, Senior Program Officer at the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and author of Wall of Silence

Sorrel King has singlehandedly turned a tragedy into a crusade to improve the quality of care delivered in hospitals throughout the country. I am confident that she has saved countless lives by sharing her story and challenging physicians and administrators to critically examine how they provide care. She made a difference for our childrens hospital and we are forever grateful.

Craig Cordola, CEO, Childrens Memorial
Hermann Hospital of Houston

Through her passion and her pain, Sorrels story has been successful in transmitting a message of urgency for improving safety. She teaches us that listening is as important as doing, reminding us that our learning is a journey, and that our true teachers sit in front of us in hospital beds and on exam tables each day.

Dr. David Shulkin, President and CEO, Beth Israel Medical
Center, and author of Questions Patients Need to Ask

Sorrel King took the tragic death of her daughter and used it to transform the culture of the nations top hospitaland ultimately the entire world of medicine. Her unique combination of selflessness, passion, and stubborn refusal to accept the status quo was just what the doctor ordered in the face of tens of thousands of deaths from medical mistakes every year.

Dr. Robert Wachter, Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and author of Understanding Patient Safety

Sorrel King is a heroic figure in the health care safety movement. Josies story and Sorrels determination are making care safer for millions of patients. At its core, this is a powerful and immensely moving love story.

Charles Kenney, author of The Best Practice:
How the New Quality Movement Is Transforming Medicine

Josies story has served as a beacon for me and thousands of other health care professionals. Fortunately, we were blessed that the love and commitment of her mother and larger family has focused on ensuring the safety of millions of other patients. Their understanding of the intrinsic vulnerabilities of the health care system has made us partners in this critical work.

Dr. Louise Liang, former Senior Vice President,
Quality and Clinical Systems Support, Kaiser Permanente

Josies Story

A Mothers Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe

Sorrel King

Copyright 2009 by Sorrel King

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Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in the United States of America

eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-9898-3

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

To Tony, Jack, Relly, Eva, and Sam
and to all the doctors, nurses, and health-care providers
who go to work every day
to make lives better, and most of all to Josie

Authors Note: In this book I have tried to the best of my memory to portray people, conversations, and events as they happened. Some names and places have been changed for reasons of privacy.

When its dark enough, you can see the stars.

Persian proverb

Josies Story

I took the lens cap off my new Nikon thirty-five millimeter camera that Tony had given me for my birthday and stood on the porch of the beach house, looking across the lawn to the ocean. The sun was beginning to lower itself toward the horizon, casting a warm glow onto Middle Pier, the dock we swam at every day. It was the last day of summer vacation. The bikes were on the back of the car, the refrigerator had been emptied, and the bags were ready to be loaded into the car the next morning before we caught a 7:00 a.m. ferry off the island.