Screw-ups galore
Friday, Apr 11, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A hospital really screwed up, but as this story mentions it wasn’t required to report the mistake to the state. Unbelievable…
A federal agency is investigating the case of a baby apparently sent home with the wrong family from a southern Illinois hospital.
Officials say the mistake happened in March at Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health says the hospital wasn’t required to report the matter but it did on April 4th.
Perhaps we need a new law to remedy this.
* Speaking of mistakes, this one was pretty egregious…
For 17 years, Gordon “Randy” Steidl fought from behind bars to prove his innocence in a 1986 double-murder and clear his name. In the nearly four years since winning freedom, he hasn’t let up, requesting an official pardon from Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
So when the letter arrived informing Steidl his petition had been denied, it was a major blow. Depressed, Steidl and his attorneys sat on the news for more than a month before going public this week, only to find that the letter, dated Feb. 14, was issued because of a “clerical error.”
In fact, Blagojevich hasn’t acted on the pardon request, and Steidl’s case is still pending, a spokesman for the state’s Prisoner Review Board said Thursday.
“It’s kind of a cruel joke,” Steidl said. “It’s like getting a stay of execution after you’ve already received another date. After 22 years, it’s like how much more do these people want to put me through?”
Eric Zorn has more on the problems with Blagojevich and pardons.
* Stu Levine is obviously a screw-up, and the G’s reliance on him to make their case against Tony Rezko has been exposed as severely flawed by defense attorney Joe Duffy. The Tribune has a story today with the subhed: “Defense attorney Joseph Duffy’s cross-examination of Stuart Levine, the prosecution’s key witness in corruption case, is drawing rave reviews from peers”
Under questioning from Duffy, Levine described with great clarity his first meeting with Rezko at a 2002 party. Duffy even prodded him to detail the seating arrangements at the dinner that night.
Then, to drive home the notion that much of this was the product of Levine’s imagination, Duffy asked Levine to pinpoint when he pleaded guilty in the case—clearly a very significant moment in his life. Levine said he couldn’t even remember the year.
- GoBearsss - Friday, Apr 11, 08 @ 11:50 am:
I hope that the practice of sending babies home with the wrong families isn’t widespread enough that we have to COUNT the number of times it is happening.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Apr 11, 08 @ 11:52 am:
It would, however, be nice to know when it happened.
- wordslinger - Friday, Apr 11, 08 @ 12:16 pm:
My parents always told me the hospital must have given them the wrong baby. I just thought they were mad at mea. Maybe there was something to it…
- North of I-80 - Friday, Apr 11, 08 @ 12:47 pm:
Wasn’t that an old Dick Van Dyke episode? The Peter’s and Petri’s babies as well as Aunt Minnies’ figs, were switched?
- Just Because - Friday, Apr 11, 08 @ 12:56 pm:
I think Duffy is coming across as a bully on the playground. Levine admitted to being a drug user and a liar, doesn’t mean that everything he said wasn’t in the ball park. Duffy made his point days ago, no need to rehash it over and over again. Even normal people have trouble remembering little things like what they had for dinner on a certain Friday night 3 years ago.
- Greg - Friday, Apr 11, 08 @ 12:58 pm:
The problem with medical errors is that they don’t get reported because of the civil tort system. I don’t think it is necessarily a rational response but a lot of errors don’t get reported because of it. And while my friends in the tort reform movement might disagree I don’t think tort reform would solve that problem. People don’t like losing their jobs, the embarrassment of mistakes, etc.
The problem we have is that individuals make mistakes, not hospitals. The challenge is getting people to admit their mistakes or even identify their mistakes and then come forward. I’m not sure “a law” would accomplish much.
I agree with the sentiment that something ought to be done, I just don’t know what could be done and how effective it might be.
- OneMan - Friday, Apr 11, 08 @ 1:13 pm:
Considering how fast the governors office process those requests he had likely never actually seen one come back from his office.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Apr 11, 08 @ 2:11 pm:
Thanks to 3-D imaging technologies, I knew what my kids looked like before they were born. I just can’t imagine mistaking someone else’s newborn as your own. What kind of “precautions” did this hospital have in place? None?
Yes! When this happens the incident should be reported - by law!
A word of advice for Blagojevich and Friends; work on the pardon situation and perhaps you’ll personally benefit later on.