Looking back, it all seems so surreal. Fourteen years ago, on March 1st 2006, my wife and I had to make the absolute worst decision of our lives. After multiple EEG’s showed little, to no, brain activity, we took my beautiful baby girl, off life support. I will always remember that day, like it was yesterday, the day the doctor said Emily’s heart had stopped and mine somehow kept beating. On that horrific day, I never thought in a million years, anything good could ever come from such an unimaginable tragedy! Now, 14 years later, I truly believe that Emily’s short life here on earth was truly meant to save, quite possibly thousands, by affecting positive change in how we respond and learn from preventable medical error.
A few short years after her tragic passing, only by God’s grace, was I able to establish the Emily Jerry Foundation (www.emilyjerryfoundation.org), in my daughter’s memory. My sole intention with EJF was to help be a catalyst for positive change in patient and medication safety, finding solutions that would prevent, what happened to Emily, from ever happening again to others. I never would have chosen this very unconventional career path for myself, I truly believe it was chosen for me. Looking back over the past decade, in addition to many of my friends and family being supportive of EJF, it’s very humbling for me to think about what a great privilege it’s been to also have had the opportunity to work with so many amazing clinician/caregivers, some of the brightest minds in healthcare, who are just as passionate about patient safety as I am! This is precisely why I would like to thank everyone for all of your ongoing support, and most importantly, for helping to keep Emily’s legacy alive!
In the next few months, I also really look forward to formally announcing the details about the Emily Jerry Foundation’s new Scholarship Initiative for Future Leaders in Healthcare!
Last Updated: December 21, 2020 by Nick Pietravoia
The Marathon Continues
Looking back, it all seems so surreal. Fourteen years ago, on March 1st 2006, my wife and I had to make the absolute worst decision of our lives. After multiple EEG’s showed little, to no, brain activity, we took my beautiful baby girl, off life support. I will always remember that day, like it was yesterday, the day the doctor said Emily’s heart had stopped and mine somehow kept beating. On that horrific day, I never thought in a million years, anything good could ever come from such an unimaginable tragedy! Now, 14 years later, I truly believe that Emily’s short life here on earth was truly meant to save, quite possibly thousands, by affecting positive change in how we respond and learn from preventable medical error.
A few short years after her tragic passing, only by God’s grace, was I able to establish the Emily Jerry Foundation (www.emilyjerryfoundation.org), in my daughter’s memory. My sole intention with EJF was to help be a catalyst for positive change in patient and medication safety, finding solutions that would prevent, what happened to Emily, from ever happening again to others. I never would have chosen this very unconventional career path for myself, I truly believe it was chosen for me. Looking back over the past decade, in addition to many of my friends and family being supportive of EJF, it’s very humbling for me to think about what a great privilege it’s been to also have had the opportunity to work with so many amazing clinician/caregivers, some of the brightest minds in healthcare, who are just as passionate about patient safety as I am! This is precisely why I would like to thank everyone for all of your ongoing support, and most importantly, for helping to keep Emily’s legacy alive!
In the next few months, I also really look forward to formally announcing the details about the Emily Jerry Foundation’s new Scholarship Initiative for Future Leaders in Healthcare!
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Our Mission
The Emily Jerry Foundation is determined to help make our nation’s, world renowned, medical facilities safer for everyone, beginning with our babies and children. We are accomplishing this very important objective by focusing on increasing public awareness of key patient safety related issues and identifying technology and best practices that are proven to minimize the “human error” component of medicine. Through our ongoing efforts The Emily Jerry Foundation is working hard to save lives every day.
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