Thursday, September 12, 2013

September 11 Again

Can We Learn From Other Tragedies?

I watched the September 11, news coverage yesterday.  From 8:42 AM when the first plane hit, and in the hours that followed, MSNBC replayed every moment as it played 12 years ago that day.   September 11 is etched in the minds of so many people.   I didn’t see all the reports that day.  I was running to the school to get my children as so many other parents did that morning.   When we hear the numbers 9/11 we think of that day.  When we get on a plane and have to wait in long lines or we can’t carry on liquids in bottles larger than 3 oz. or I see the German Sheppard, bomb sniffing dogs in the city I know it’s for my own safety.  It’s a way of life most of us have gotten used to.
I asked a friend if he watched the news and he said he can’t, it brings up too many emotions.  I thought to myself that he must get it then why I struggle each time I hear a report about a misdiagnosis, hospital acquired infection, surgery that has gone wrong or someone who got the wrong medication.  Each time it brings me back to the pain of losing a loved one because of their medical care.
Changes have been happening in hospitals, but not fast enough.  There is rarely a lapse in sending a customer through the metal detector, or checking their bags or security missing someone getting a gun on the plane.  But, still in hospitals we are expected to ask a nurse or doctor to wash their hands.  When was the last time we had to ask to go through a metal detector?
Imagine if we had to live in a world where we had to remind people what their job is, especially when it comes to safety?