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Last May, Dr. Charles Denham of TMIT brought Eric Cropp and I together for the very first time for an interview, since my daughter Emily’s tragic death. Emily died from a medication error that occurred only days after her second birthday in 2006. Shortly after establishing The Emily Jerry Foundation in 2009, I had explained to a number of people, including Dr. Denham, how and why I felt so strongly about publicly forgiving Eric for the death of my beautiful little girl Emily. Many people simply thought I had completely lost my mind and could not comprehend or understand why, as Emily’s father, I would ever want to take such a drastic step.

Dr. Denham has produced other very successful patient safety documentaries like “Chasing Zero”, narrated by Dennis Quaid. After discussing this particular issue of “forgiveness” at great length with him over the phone in 2010, he called me at the beginning of 2011, and proposed getting Eric and I together for what he referred to as a “healing moment”. This life changing interview will be featured in “Surfing the Healthcare Tsunami: Bring Your Best Board”. I will be attending the documentary premiere in Washington DC at the National Press Club next Friday April 27th. This film then airs for the first time the next morning on the Discovery Channel April 28th. It will also be aired May 5th, May 12th, and May 19th at 8:00 AM local time, however check listings in your time zone as some carriers vary in broadcast regions. You can read more about the premiere by visiting the SafetyLeaders.org website by clicking here.

The primary rationale for wanting to forgive Eric publicly for Emily’s death was simply due to the fact that, at no time did I ever feel he had any malice towards my daughter. Nor do I believe he ever meant my beautiful daughter any harm whatsoever. In fact, I have never felt that any one individual was responsible. It has always been quite the contrary. To this day, I truly believe that my little girl died as a result of two primary reasons. The first was due to a number of inherent systemic flaws that had existed in the pharmacy workflow that day that ultimately led up to the horrible error being made that tragically took my Emily’s life. Secondly, I truly believe that the Ohio State Pharmacy Board, at that time, should have really been held culpable in Emily’s death. The reason I say this is due to the simple fact that it was determined that a pharmacy technician had actually made the fatal error that had killed Emily. After the incident, the pharmacy technician had mentioned that she never really knew that highly concentrated sodium chloride (salt) could actually kill people. With that in mind, I have always asked myself why the Ohio State Pharmacy Board at that time, had absolutely no training requirements, licensing requirements, or oversight of pharmacy technicians in the state of Ohio? To make matters worse, they had to know that pharmacy technicians were being used on a daily basis at all of Ohio’s medical facilities to routinely compound IV medications going directly into patient’s circulatory systems. With that being said, I believe the Ohio State Pharmacy Board was really not doing their primary job, which was to protect the residents of their state from unsafe pharmacy practices. Bottom line, as Emily’s father, had I known that there would have been a very high likelihood, or probability, that a pharmacy technician who had little, to no, training would have been compounding my daughter’s IV medications, I never would have allowed it to happen. I would have insisted that only a registered pharmacist, with years and years of training, prepare all of Emily’s IV medications during the course of her treatment.

Special thanks to the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) for covering the Emily Jerry foundation in the April 2012 edition of AAMI News. We truly appreciate all their support in shedding light on our cause. An excerpt of the article is below:

Six years ago, Chris Jerry was going to surprise his 2-year-old daughter Emily with the best present she could ask for, which wasn’t a toy or even a pony. It was that she no longer had cancer.

But he never got to tell her.

On Feb. 26, 2006, Emily underwent one last chemotherapy treatment to eliminate residual cancer cells from the yolk sac tumor she had battled for six months, but something went terribly wrong.

When Jerry got to Rainbow Babies& Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, OH, that day, his daughter was already unconscious from an unbearable amount of pain.

“I just remember opening the door and my wife at the time had this look of horror on her face,” he told AAMI News.

Read the full article at aami.org by clicking here.

I was interviewed after the Quality & Patient Safety fair at University Hospitals Case Medical Center by Cleveland’s News Channel 5 about the Emily Jerry Foundation and my speech to UH staff that afternoon. Watch the video footage below and click here to read the full story.

After my speech at University Hospitals on Wednesday, MedCity News came out with a story highlighting the event. They noted the importance of the fact that I was addressing the hospital staff at the very site my daughter’s tragic death occurred. The event was filled with hope though, because as we continue to move forward and bring our minds together I feel confident we are positively impacting patient safety around the country.

Read the MedCity News Coverage by clicking here.

An incredible article by a true patient safety advocate, Institute for Safe Medication Practices president Michael Cohen. I am incredibly thankful for the continued support he has shown our foundation and our mutual cause. Hopefully this article will touch and inspire those who it reaches.

Click on the image below to download a pdf of the actual newspaper clipping.

I received the following very nice note from Ken Hale at OSU’s Pharmacy department and wanted to share some of the awesome comments our engagement received from students…

Hi Chris.

One of our faculty members, Bonnie Spiers, collected reflections from our pharmacy students who attended your program at Ohio State on November 21st. I found their feedback to be very thoughtful and encouraging. I thought you might like to see a few specific comments:

“This lecture was beyond beneficial to my future career as a pharmacist. I will take the things I learned through this program and keep them in my mind for the rest of my life as a health care provider.”

“This talk was extremely moving. It changes how I view my future career as a pharmacist”

“This is one event that was especially touching, and I know I will carry it with me throughout my career. It opened my eyes to realizing each medication is for a person, and each person is loved.”

“This lecture was one of the most interesting, inspiring, and heartfelt events that I have ever experienced.”

“This event was extremely unique, and seeing the two of them together (Chris Jerry and Eric Cropp) advocating for safety and awareness was inspiring.”

“I loved this lecture! The College of Pharmacy should do this every year.”

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So, as you can see, it seems you achieved your goals in speaking with these future health professionals.