Alisa Iacovelli

The Josie King Story

I have attended many of the events that have been occurring at Stockton.  A lot of them were fun and interesting to go to; , however, the most memorable event so far was definitely the Josie King story.  I attended this event on October 2nd as a required presentation for my Intro to Health Sciences class.  Josie King’s mother, Sorrel King, came to Stockton to speak to the health science students about her story.  I had no idea how moving this presentation was going to be.

Sorrel King is a mother who has experienced something that no mother should ever have to go through.  Her daughter, Josie, was 18 months old when she suffered first and second degree burns from climbing into a hot bath.  Josie was admitted into Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins hospitals, one of the top hospitals in the country.  While Josie was in the hospital, Sorrel and her husband Tony were constantly by her side.  The parents became friends with the nurses and doctors.  The people taking care of fall the children were amazing and always at their best.  Josie was recovering rather quickly, so her doctors decided to move her down from the PICU to the Step Down Unit.  Sorrel was told that this meant they will be going home soon.  She was nervous about moving but was told that no one has ever been sent back up from the Step Down Unit to the PICU.

Once Josie was moved and settled in, her mother noticed that Josie was getting really thirsty.  The nurse suggested that the mother feed her ice chips.  After feeding her, the doctor said Josie looked great and can go home in two days.  Josie’s central line was taken out.  While Josie was taking a bath, she was sucking on a washcloth, and when she was put to bed, she looked skinny, tired, and lethargic.  Sorrel wanted to call a doctor but the nurse said that Josie’s vitals were fine.  A second nurse was called in to check on the baby, and she also said Josie was fine.  Sorrel went home for the night but called twice throughout the night making sure she was okay.  When she got back in the morning, she firmly requested that the nurses came to look at Josie right away but she was told to wait until after rounds.  Sorrel mentioned how she always wanted to be the mom that was easygoing and helpful.  She didn’t want to be annoying but that day she knew that she had a duty and she forced the nurses to come help.  The nurses gave her gatorade to quench Josie’s thirst, and two shots of Narcam.  The doctor said that Josie looked much better and could skip her 1 o’clock shot of Methadone.  When 1 o’clock rolled around, the nurse came over with the shot and was about to give it to Josie.  Sorrel told the nurse that the doctor said Josie did not need the 1 o’clock dose.  The nurse insisted that the orders have been changed.  Sorrel knew that something was wrong as she watched the nurse give the shot to Josie, but she kept quiet, keeping her faith in the fact that she was at one of the best hospitals in the country.

After Josie’s nap, she would not wake up.  Doctors and nurses came running in and made Sorrel leave the room and watch all of the chaos from the window.  They moved Sorrel from room to room, not giving her any information.  Eventually, they sat her down in an office, and told her that her precious 18 month old daughter Josie was going to die.  Sorrel insisted that was impossible, that a miracle would occur, that she would do all in her power to help the nurses and doctors and that Josie will go home to her family as planned.  The doctors told her that a team of neurologists were on the case and they confirmed that Josie was brain dead and her organs were starting to shut down.  It would only be a matter of days.

Sorrel went into Josie’s room to spend time with her.  She had a bunch of tubes in her body to the point where she looked like a robot.  Looking at Josie, Sorrel was thinking about how her other children and her husband were home blowing up balloons, preparing for Josie’s return home.  Within 24 hours, the King family went from planning a welcome home celebration to planning a funeral.

Sorrel kKing was furious at the hospital.  She was regretful because she witnessed this happening and could have prevented it.  The whole event was simply a miscommunication error.  So many thoughts went through her head.  What if the nurses who had been concerned and worried about Josie had actually gone up the chain of command and tried harder to be heard?  What if the doctors tried harder to listen?  What if someone took their eyes off the computer and look at the patient in the bed?  What if someone took the time to listen to the mother?  If even one of these happened, Sorrel believed that Josie would be alive today.

Over 75% of all sentinel events are due to a breakdown in communication.  Why is it so hard for people in the healthcare industry to communicate?  It is our generation’s job to change the culture for everyone else because we are the upcoming health care workers.

The head of the hospital went to the King’s house to apologize to Josie’s parents.  He said that he would get to the bottom of this and fix the problem.  They thanked him but told him he would be hearing from their lawyers.  Mr. and Mrs. King wanted to take Hopkins down and destroy them.  The hospital offered the parents money, but they thought that it was despicable for them to offer money for a dead child, let alone for  to accept it.  If her parents accepted the money then they would be accepting what the hospital has done, allowing them to get away with what has occurred.

Even though Sorrel thought it was awful to take the money, she decided to take the money and do something important for Josie.  They thought about giving the money to the Ronald McDonald foundation and other children’s cancer organizations.

The head of the hospital wanted Sorrel to talk to everyone at the hospital about the tragedy because 98,000 people die every year due to medical errors but no one really knows about it because it is not talked about.  This is the 4th leading cause of death in the country.  The head of the hospital thought that by using a real life story, she would be able to get into the hearts and minds of healthcare workers.  Sorrel began getting requests for her videos and presentations everywhere.  She asked for donations for each video or presentation.  This was the start of the Josie King foundation.

I found this event extremely useful.  Having Sorrel King come to speak to a bunch of students looking to become healthcare professionals was perfect.  It reached the right audience.  This presentation has definitely opened my eyes and when I am out working in the healthcare field, I will be aware and keep this story in the back of my brain so I can avoid anything similar from happening.  The Josie King story was my favorite event so far at Stockton and I am so grateful that I got the opportunity to attend.

Alisa Iacovelli

Professor Heather McGovern

Life of the Mind

21 November 2013

Event Blog #3 – Crumble

For my third event, I decided to attend the Stockton Theatre Club’s production of Crumble on Thursday night, November 13.  This production was created with a cast consisting of only five people, one of which who portrayed multiple characters.  The play begins with a character who depicts the spirit of the house.  This character has little monologues throughout the play that explains the history of the house and what it has become over the years.  Gary, the father of the family who lives in this house, unfortunately passed away from a tragic accident.  The rest of the plot revolves around a mother and daughter who are trying to cope with the catastrophic loss of their beloved family member.  The daughter, Janice, is an out of sorts eleven year old who is trying to find a way to be with her father again.  Her mother, Clara, suffers from severe anxiety.  Clara has had little to no relationship with her daughter since the passing of Gary, which makes her question her parenting skills.  Clara’s sister, Barbara, attempts to help with the parenting of Janice, and tries to get her to open up.  Barbara has always wanted to have a child, however was unable to.  To fulfill her want for children, she adopted many cats and tries to build a relationship with Janice.

Janice is almost always in her room, because she wants little to do with her mother, or really anyone for that matter.  She is visited by an imaginary Justin Timberlake.  Timberlake is supposed to depict the father figure that Janice no longer has.  Janice pursues a romantic relationship with this figurative character.  The same character that plays Justin Timberlake also plays the imaginative Indiana Jones, who is the guiding role for Clara.

Towards the end of the play, Janice gives her mother a Christmas present.  The present it a bomb that she made to kill herself and her mother.  The reason that she wanted to use this bomb is to bring her and her mother back together with her father.  Once the bomb goes off, the only thing that happens is that Janice loses her right hand, which was a symbol of her father throughout the play.  Once she returns from the hospital, Janice builds a better relationship with Clara.  Barbara is also included in this new relationship.  The play concludes with the three of them moving out of the house after fixing it up.

A main theme throughout this play is gender roles.  The father figure is usually seen as someone who controls the household and regulates what goes on.  Once this family lost their father figure, they spiraled out of control.  Another gender role is the mother who tries to gain her daughter’s affection through food.  Mothers are known for cooking and completing household tasks, and Clara does much of this, fulfilling this stereotype.

Overall, I enjoyed the production of Crumble.  I thought the acting was professional, as well as the scenery and costuming.  I would definitely recommend a Stockton production again, and will attend them in the future.

Alisa Iacovelli

Life of the Mind – MWF 9:55

On September 16th, a rather creative event was held in the campus center.  The event was called “Build Your Own Fish Tank” and it was exactly what it sounds like… you got to build your own fish tank!  At my friends and I just walked by and did not give the event a second thought.  However once we saw everyone else with their neon colored fish tanks, we thought it would be fun to make one ourselves.  While taking a closer look, we noticed that not only did they have the fish tank section put up, but there was also a food section with all fish-themed foods such as Goldfish, fish sticks, and gummies in the shape of fish.  This was a cute and innovative idea to keep people interested in the event after they got their fish, or while they were waiting in line.

There was a large number of people at this event, making it chaotic at first.  The most chaotic part of the event came when the staff realized there were more people at the event than they planned for.  At this point, the staff asked everyone to line up neatly, and they started to hand out fish bowls to everyone in line.  This allowed everyone in line to know if it was worth waiting or not.  Unfortunately, my friends and I were at the part of the line where they ran out of fish bowls and we were told that there was not enough for us.  We decided to leave since there was no point for us to stay any longer.

About an hour later, my friends and I had a craving for pizza from Primo’s in the campus center.  While walking through, we realized there was about 20 fish left, but only 3 people still in line.  We asked the staff member if we could have one of the fish and he told us that we could take as many as we wanted as long as we provided our own fish bowl.  This made our night complete!  We took three goldfish in a bag and walked them back to our dorm.  We gave it to one of our floormates to hold while we took a drive over to Target for fish supplies.

Unfortunately, the $21.30 that we spent on the fish was a waste because they only lasted several days, however it was definitely a fun experience!  We went on an emotional rollercoaster from this event:  starting out skeptical, getting excited, being disappointed, then excited again made an ordinary night something different.  I don’t know many colleges that let you build your own fish tank, and I must say that I thought this event was extremely successful and creative.