A San Antonio family is turning a devastating personal loss into positive action. They’ve created a patient safety foundation to help others from becoming a victim of medical mistakes.
Louise Batz loved Fiesta all her life, as a duchess in her younger years, and as part of the party in her older years. She was a loving grandmother and a vital 66-year-old when the unthinkable happened.
Last April, after a knee replacement surgery, she was given a combination of pain medications that impacted her breathing. After spending days on life support, she died, way before her time.
“I think we had the false perception that everything was going to be okay because it was a routine knee surgery,” said her daughter, Laura Batz Townsend. “It was a combination of medications that made her go into respiratory depression. And that is what ultimately killed my mom.”
Now, in her name, Louise Batz’ family has created a patient safety foundation. They’ve published a guide to help patients’ families know what questions to ask to make sure a routine hospital stay is just that: routine. Tens of thousands of Americans still die each year from preventable mistakes.
“These events occur to individuals inside a hospital system and so it’s under the radar,” commented Dr. Charles Holshouser, Louise Batz’ brother who is an OB/GYN. “People are not aware.”
This week, Batz’ family unveiled a Fiesta medal to promote their ambitious endeavor. Their dream is to have patient safety guides available at hospitals and doctors’ offices so that people facing hospital stays don’t feel like a stranger in a strange land.
“It’s very critical,” Holshouser said. “If you can run a nuclear power plant safely, we should be able to do the same thing inside our hospitals.”
“That is when it maters the most is when you’re in the hospital,” stressed Townsend. “You only have one chance. My mom doesn’t have any other chances. That was it.”
Batz’ family says they’ve gotten a great response from all of the hospital systems in San Antonio when they’ve approached them about providing this information to patients.
