The Josie King story

Published

What do you think of this story and the facts surrounding it? I have tried to find the specific medical error or series of errors that happened to cause this girl to die but I'm not having success. If you just read the mother's account, its confusing. Was it actual dehydration or narcotic overdose?

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Apparently both.

Here's a link from my friend Google ;) : http://www.rosemed.com/CPM/RM%20Condition%20H%20-%20Room%20Flyer%20a.pdf

Sadly, medical errors are not uncommon. This is a terrible story. While medical errors happen at all scopes of practice, I do believe that the nurse should have gotten the MD at the parent's request. In peds cases, I would think that parents know their child best.

Also, it's very possible for a nurse to miss a developing complication or a risk for a complication that a specialist MD will not. It's obvious that there were a lot of mistakes made here. It is a patient's right (in this case the parents) to speak to their doctor. If it's not a medical emergency, let them decide and talk to the family. A nurse will not get in 'trouble' for requesting the doctor to look at the patient at the family's insistence. I know some of our nursing texts seem to dictate that nurses are the be all and end all of a patient's care, but it's not a bad thing to contact the MD.

I think this article should be required reading for all healthcare students (meds, nursing, RT, etc.). There is no room for error in this business. Everything must be attended to and double checked. Thanks for posting.

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Specializes in ICU, IMCU.

I just watched this video in class! Horrible tragedy!!! At what point should a burn patient be NPO with no IV or central line? I could not sleep thinking about the entire scenario. I have 3 little girls and could not imagine this mother's frustration. Prior to nursing school, I have had nurses bully me and not listen to my concerns (which resulted in harm to my child in two seperate cases within 48hrs)....I VOW to NOT be that nurse, and if I become that nurse....I will hang up my stethescope and put down my pen light, because nursing should not be a profession for people who do not listen to or look at their patients. :(

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We had to watch the video a few months ago, and I couldn't stop crying. My heart was completely broken for this family. I agree with mmulligan23. There was absolutely no excuse for the nurses involved to ignore this mother's concerns.

Hearing Josie's story caused me to stop and think about whether or not I really wanted to continue with my education. Is there a point where you stop seeing that there is an actual person in front of you, and not just a job that needs to be done?

Very sad.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.

Everyone who is involved in direct patient care at the hospital where I work had to watch this. It was mandatory for all, so that anyone in our facility can help family initiate for a critical response team event. I think it really should be mandatory. It shows what can happen when we ignore the family saying "s/he's not acting right, or like herself," etc. It made me cry watching it.

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Specializes in Burns.

I too had to watch this story in nursing class and wondered about how this tragic outcome came about. I came across this article from the Center for Nursing Advocacy, which doesn't really provide any more details, but certainly asks many more questions. Two items I found odd were Nurse staffing shortages were never mentioned at all. Although the Rapid Response protocol outcome was a result of this senseless death, it seems JH has not provided any details about what they have done to correct shortages, or even acknowledge that it contributed to this event. Also, did anyone else find it strange that not one nurse was ever intereviewed about their thoughts on this/or what actually happened? No doubt the hospital may have prevented the nurses involved from speaking for legal reasons, but it seems odd there is no perspective from any actual caregivers - involved in this case or not.

http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/news/2003dec14-15_balt_sun.html

So sad. I hope they are showing this video to physicians and other hospital workers in training as well.

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I had questions too after watching the video. If you read the book, Josie was so dehydrated that she was becoming lethargic and had a decreased LOC. Take a small child in that state and give a medication that supresses her even more and that caused the code. While they where coding her they weren't able to get IV access and she required an IO site. I am sure that this delay contributed as well. Very sad and avoidable. Just because your patient has orders for a medication its still your responsibilty to assess the patient before giving to make sure its appropriate. Had the nurse involved listened to the mothers concerns and looked at the child before giving the pain med this would have been avoided.

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Specializes in Intermediate care.

at our hospital, about 8 years ago? something like that...we had a HUGE med error that almost cost a patient her life. They shared the story with us in our new grad orientation to remember importance of our 5 rights and all the safety we have behind medications.

A patient was on a PCA pump and the nurse didnt double check the concentration of it. Ended up being everytime the patient pushed the PCA pump she was getting about 50x the prescribed dose. Can't remember exact details behind it, but she ended up being ok. Apparently she was normally a heroin addict, which is what saved her sadly. Any normal person that dose probably would have killed them.

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