Hospitals need to listen, we need to make sure we are heard.

Here’s a cautionary tale for us parents of young kids…. A Florida father who lost his young son to a series of preventable hospital medical errors said hospitals need to embrace a culture of listening to parents. While we can’t be sure hospitals will be taking his advice right away, we need to make an extra effort to make sure our health care practitioners pay attention to what we tell them.

Horst Ferrero’s 3-year-old son, Sebastian, died in 2007 after being administered a fatal dose of medication as part of a routine medical test.  Their child died as a result of hospital errors, not from some disease.

Horst and Luisa Ferrero, founders of the Sebastian Ferrero Foundation, are leading the effort to build a dedicated, full-service children’s hospital in Gainesville.

In an emotional retelling of his story at the Florida Association of Children’s Hospital’s dinner in Gainesville, Ferrero described what he called a “cascade of errors” that occurred when his son was hospitalized. If any member of the medical team had responded differently at any of a number of points along the way, his son’s life might have been saved, Ferrero said. He urges hospitals to:

Listen to parents. They know their children best and are speaking on their behalf.

Build a culture that makes safety everyone’s responsibility. Double-checking can save lives.

Treat the “whole” child. Every member of the medical team must be trained to observe and treat the whole child, not just focus on their limited scope of responsibility.

Don’t treat children as little adults. Make sure staff at every level are trained and sensitized to the unique protocols associated with treating children.

We are our children’s best advocates. Sometimes just making sure we are heard can spell life or death in a hospital situation. Let’s also hope hospitals will be more sensitive to our needs, in light of stories such as this.

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