By now you’ve probably heard the news out of Reno that a vintage plane crashed into the grandstands during an air show, killing several spectators on the ground.
This is a great time to make a quick observation. Here were hundreds of people out to have a fun afternoon with their friends and families watching airplanes compete in a show that has gone on for years. But for at least 50 of those people (numbers at press time), it ended in an unthinkable race against the clock to save their lives. 50 people who didn’t know that they’d be going to the hospital that day. 50 patients wheeled into ERs in front of doctors who had never seen the patients before them, didn’t know their medical history, the prescription medications they were on or the names of their next of kin, to answer those questions. Those physicians, are in a race to save those lives.
Those unpredictable, unthinkable situations are just ONE of the reasons that we recommend having your ID/allergy/prescription information and preferably a current medical history at your fingertips. In our book Ready In 10, and our upcoming book “Get Your Stuff Together”, we recommend some easy tips that would have come in very handy for this very situation.
Keep your ID with you, either in your purse/wallet.
Create emergency Wallet Cards for yourself and each member of your family, that you keep along with that ID. We have a great version you can cut out and use in Ready In 10. Just make sure yours has your name, age, address/phone, names of your emergency contacts, physician and any allergies or prescriptions you currently take.
If you’re not taking your purse or wallet (for example when you’re out running or on an outing with other family members, consider using a Shoewallet, a small wallet that holds an ID, emergency card and a key, credit card or a few dollars. They strap right to your shoe or to your belt.
We also suggest putting an ICE contact or two in your cell phone. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency, and will alert people at the emergency room or rescue workers to the people you want contacted if you are unable to speak for yourself.
If you want to kick it up a notch, consider putting you and your families medical history on a document in a secure file server (like your own web site directory or online file depository). That way if someone is injured, another family member can send the link or the document to the hospital treating them, so that they hospital can use that information immediately, before the next of kin even arrives on the scene.
Can you imagine the chaos that took place moments after that air disaster? People thrown feet into the air, away from their family or away from their belongings, then scooped up by emergency personnel and rushed to the nearest hospital that could take them? The only thing anyone can do at that moment, (besides prayer!), is to make sure that they’ve done everything in their power, to ensure doctors treating them have everything they need to treat them with their particular needs, in mind. To have what they need to save their lives.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people and families impacted by this air disaster. For more about the story click on the link below.
“Hospital Confuses Teen Accident Survivor with Non-Surviving Friend for an Entire Week”
Remember the story of teens Whitney Cerak and Laura Van Ryn, whose car was struck by a truck in Indiana? One of the teens was killed instantly and the other lay in a coma for five weeks. That would have been tragic enough, if it weren’t for the fact that the hospital misidentified the girls. Whitney’s family buried the girl who they thought was their daughter, while Laura’s family stayed at the other girl’s bedside. It wasn’t until the surviving girl woke up five weeks later, that everyone realized it was actually Whitney who had survived.
This time Arizona teens Abby Guerra and Marlena Cantu had an accident while driving back from Disneyland. Abby’s parents were told she did not survive as Marlena’s parents held vigil by her bedside for one week until a belated autopsy uncovered the fact that it was actually Marlena who had died and not Abby. Both girl’s parents not only had to experience the horrible shock of the accident and the death/critical injury of a daughter, but now their roles were reversed. Marlena’s parents having spent the week at their “daughter’s” bedside, now have a funeral to plan. (ABC News reporters Andrea Canning & Lee Ferram’s story can be found at this link: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/tragic-mix-hospital-miss-signs/story?id=11257120)
The worst part about this story, is that the mixup was completely unnecessary.
The girls had three unique identifiers that should have immediately pointed out the differences between them, making a correct identification much easier. They might have looked similar, but Marlena was two inches taller than Abby, still had her wisdom teeth and an appendectomy scar.
Hospitals, especially metropolitan trauma centers are extraordinarily busy. Not only are the nurses and doctors overworked, but their immediate focus is on saving the life in front of them, not identifying victims who didn’t survive. But – and this is a big but – when a hospital has two accident victims who are similar in age, hair and facial characteristics, they can’t just assume that they know which victim is which.
And it’s not just the family that suffers when identities are mixed up. Treating a patient without the right medical history in mind, or worse, someone else’s, can have tragic results. There was a story on the FOX series “House” a while back, where just this thing happened. Two women who had similar facial features and body types were in an explosion in their office building. One survived and one did not. House (Hugh Laurie) and his team couldn’t figure out why the treatment they were giving their patient was making her worse. Finally, when she was at the brink of death, they realized that the symptoms were consistent with a bad reaction to a medication they were giving her – a medication that the girl they thought they had, wasn’t allergic to. That was when House realized that their patient was actually the woman everyone though had passed away in the explosion. David Shore and Katie Jacobs did a wonderful job bringing this complicated, tragic story to life.
Much, much more has to be done to ensure that the victims of any accident – especially one in which the victims are similar in age and appearance, are correctly identified. Since we weren’t there that night when Abby and Marlena were brought into the emergency department, we can’t know exactly what was said or what was done. We don’t know that the family didn’t ask all the right questions or if they did, but the questions were rebuffed or simply remained unanswered. We don’t know if the busy trauma staff simply set aside their normal identification procedures until later, or if everyone just assumed that every identification procedure that should have taken place, had actually occurred.
All we really know is that two families not only suffered a horrible shock and loss, but were made to live through an additional tragedy – one that was completely unnecessary.
So how can you keep hospital mix-ups from happening to YOUR family?
1. Clear Identification
Make sure that you and your family members have clear identification on them at all times, especially when away from home or on a long drive, like Abby and Marlena’s trip from California to Arizona. We don’t know what shape the girl’s clothes or jewelry were in after the accident, but if even one of the girls had been wearing a Medic-Alert type ID bracelet or a Shoewallet strapped to her shoe with ID cards and contact information, proper identification wouldn’t have been a problem.
2. Questioning Authority
In a life or death situation, a family tends to believe what they’ve just been told. That’s probably a very useful defense mechanism to help the mind deal with tragic news. But in a situation like this, with victims who looked similar, someone in the family should have started asking questions. As traumatized as the family is, they shouldn’t just blindly believe what they’re told, just because the person talking to them is wearing a white coat. In fact one report said that the parents weren’t allowed to see the girl who had died. If that’s true, that’s tragic. Visually identifying a loved one is the right of every family, no matter how difficult it might be, and could have easily cleared up the mixup. If the parents can’t physically bring themselves to make an ID (totally understandable) then a trusted relative, aunt, uncle, grandparent, should have been allowed to do it.
3. Detailing Identifying Traits.
When you update the medical histories of your immediate family members (you do have emergency forms filled out for each family member, right? If not, grab our Ready In 10 System asap.) make sure that you include a detailed list of everyone’s identifying traits. Did any of them break a bone, have a surgery? Do they have birthmarks, or identifying scars? Eye color, height, blood type, anything that would help doctors quickly identify your loved one. If the unthinkable ever happens, take that list to the physician in charge, or if need be, to the patient advocate or the hospital administrator and make them prove to you that the patient they’re talking about is actually your loved one.
Remember what we said earlier about Abby and Marlena’s case? One girl was two inches taller, had had her appendix removed and one had had her wisdom teeth removed. No matter how badly injured and swollen the surviving girl was, at least one if not all of these traits would be easily confirmed, if someone would have taken the time to do it. They could have measured the bodies with a measuring tape, done a quick dental exam to find wisdom teeth or even ultrasound the abdomen of the surviving girl and see if she had or did not have an appendix.
When it comes to YOUR family, it’s up to you to be their advocate. Don’t leave their care and safekeeping up to the hospital. Just because they’re in charge, doesn’t mean they’re always right.
Here is the third piece in a series we began a few posts ago, after the earthquake in Baja. Not only does the series tell you how to prepare for an earthquake, but this part gives you tips on being prepared for ANY disaster — the right way! In case you didn’t see part one and two, you’ll find the links below… lg
Facing a disaster without giving yourself a plan to recover from it, is like trying to build a house with no blueprint and no tools!
Having two plans can make all the difference, in getting you through those first few days and weeks after a disaster strikes.
What are the plans? They are the Ready In 10 Evacuation Plan and the Get Back To Life Plan — the same plans that we’ve built into our Ready In 10 System.
The evacuation plan is pretty simple. It all comes from one question… If you were at home or at work and suddenly had to evacuate your home, or your general area, where would you go?
As you think about the locations you’ll use for your evacuation, consider, the people travelling with you, how you’ll get there (car, bus, plane), any pets travelling with you and whether those locations will actually work for you – for instance are they close to stores or services your family might need, like pharmacies, clothing, banks and doctors.
We suggest that people have three different locations in mind, to give you different types of locations and choices depending on the circumstances. As you create your plan, write everything down in detail. If you have to use this plan, you and the people you love are probably going to be in panic mode and following an easy to understand plan, will help calm and focus you.
Write down the people who will be travelling with you, and any special instructions you’ll need to gather everyone together, in case a disaster or emergency occurs while you’re all away from home. Name the location that you and your family will use to meet up with each other and the location you will be evacuating to, if you cannot live in your home, but your immediate area is still safe. Include the address of the location, contact phone, email address and directions.
Next choose a location (writing down the details, address and contact information) that your family will use if you not only need to evacuate your home, but your immediate area or city. This might happen during a moderate hurricane or a tornado. Your third location is out of state, for a serious, widely destructive emergency like Hurricane Katrina, the Iceland Volcano, or other disaster that will make your entire region uninhabitable.
You will also include these locations on your emergency wallet card and your family’s wallet cards (and hopefully your Shoewallets to carry them securely!). Now, no matter what the disaster, even a fire or local emergency, you and your family will now know where and how to gather, and who will be responsible for what, so you can quickly reunite and travel on to your emergency location together. If you like, you can also give a card to the person you chose to be your out-of-area contact as well. Will you have any pets travelling with you? Be sure to fill out the pet section, so that you will have all the information you need for them, like the name and numbers for the veterinarian, their licenses, and names/numbers of kennels in the location you are evacuating to and any prescriptions or special instructions you’ll need until you return home.
So are YOU prepared to deal with a disaster? Check out our latest video and see.
Your Get Back To Life Plan
The worst part of any disaster, short of losing a loved one, is the possibility that the home you love and care for and everything in it would be damaged beyond repair. That is what your Get Back To Life Plan is all about.
Imagine that you and your family have survived an earthquake, but had to leave your area because it is uninhabitable. You’re in your evacuation location two days after the hurricane subsides. The phone rings. It’s a good friend of yours, who has just toured your neighborhood and is calling to tell you that your home is badly damaged and he doubts that you will be able to live in it for several months, if ever again. After you and your family hold each other for a while and talk, you finally feel strong enough to open your Ready In 10 Notebook. There you find your Get Back To Life Plan and begin making calls to your insurance agent, your contractor and your boss. You call the local real estate agent in your evacuation city and ask her to begin looking for temporary housing, register your children in the local school, and begin calling the contacts you need (that you jotted down just in case), to help you settle in. Getting settled is easier than you thought, since you have copies of all of the vital documents you need, like your birth certificates and property deeds in a safe deposit box at the local bank. It takes some time, but with hard work and a lot of courage, you and your family are back to living in a matter of weeks.
Now imagine the same scenario, the same phone call, holding your family, talking and then realizing that you have no plan and no clue how to get back to living your life. It’s CNN coverage all over again. The best part of this little scenario is that it hasn’t happened to you and that you have time right now, to make sure no matter what ever occurs in your area, you and your family will be prepared.
If you don’t have a copy of our actual Get Back To Life Plan, grab a piece of paper. Take a few minutes to answer the following questions:
How will we handle our bank accounts, paying our monthly bills and receiving our paychecks? How much emergency cash do we need to have, while traveling?
What are our credit card limits and toll free numbers for emergency increases?
How will we work? Will we work remotely or have to look for new positions? What people or contacts can we call about temporary or permanent jobs?
How will we handle our medical, dental and prescription needs while in the new location? What doctors and dentists can we use while there?
How long can we stay in our evacuation location? If we need to remain evacuated longer, where will we go/stay? Who will our real estate contacts be, if we need to find new permanent or temporary housing?
How are we going to secure the property or vehicles we had to leave behind?
How will we take care of our pets, during the evacuation and until we find new permanent housing?
How will we handle our transportation needs? What contacts will we need to purchase or lease vehicles?
How will we handle our daycare needs? How will we handle getting our children into school if necessary? What schools or contacts will we need, to enroll them in a new school in a temporary or new location?
How will we handle any special needs in our family?
Once you’ve answered the questions, get your family together to work out any potential problems you have uncovered and then draft your plan. And don’t forget to compile a list of real estate agents, financial contacts and jobs, schools, doctors and other professionals or information that you might need to establish yourself in the new city temporarily or permanently.
Starting over is never easy, especially when it happens because of a disaster or other life changing emergency. But taking a few hours now to think through and draft a plan, will give you and your family the direction, information and support that you need, to get through not only the first hours and days after a disaster, but the first steps back to living the life you’ve worked so hard to build.
