What's in a Quilt?

Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the USA in 2016. Based on the John Hopkins Study, more than 250,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. In my opinion, the John Hopkins figures are misrepresented because Hospital Safety Score stated in their  article on October 2013 that 440,000 Americans die annually from preventable hospital errors, making it the third leading cause of death.  In 2008 The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine stated in their release 1.5 million people are harmed each year by common medical errors.  Where is the outrage?  Where are the protests?  Where are the people wanting to hold their representatives accountable for the mass carnage of their loved ones? 

Unfortunately our representatives are the problem, not the solution since many are in bed with the medical community.  Our state medical boards which are the first line of defense are failing to discipline their doctors and taking measures by eliminating the problem and look the other way with the countless number of errors their doctors are committing, including the  collateral damage of dead bodies they leave behind.

Dianna Puente Colbert, a patient safety advocate,  made a beautiful quilt as a  remembrance to  all patients who either lost their lives or were maimed because of preventable medical errors.  The inspiration for the quilt was her father, Mr. John Puente.  He was born August 8, 1944 and died October 11, 2007.  After the death of her father, she became involved as a patient advocate, much like myself for almost the same reason, and found that those who either  lost the quality of life or died because of preventable medical errors, were not acknowledged in any way and became  hidden statistics by the medical community.

Ms.Colbert wanted to donate her Memorial Quilt to The Health Science  Museum, located in Houston, Texas.  Since victims of medical errors do not have any memorials or anything to acknowledge their deaths, like the Holocaust Museum in D.C, donating a quilt to  Health Science Museum seemed like a logical choice, or so many patient advocates thought.

Here is the response she received:

Hello Cilla,

Our management team has reviewed the offer to donate the commemorative quilt to the Health Museum. Unfortunately, we must refuse the donation.

It is beautiful work, but we feel the subject matter of the quilt is a little too controversial to display at our museum. Our museum is a member of the Texas Medical Center and most of our Board and donor base are doctors. It is possible that the quilt could offend some of our stakeholders.

Sorry that this is the outcome, but we very much appreciate your offer.

Thanks much,

 

-Peter

Peter Feher - Director of Exhibits

The rejection of the quilt was not the issue, because  rejection is a common part of life.  However, the fact that the donor base of the museum are doctors and could offend them because some are "stakeholders" is a sad commentary as to how deep censorship penetrated every facet of our lives.  When museums deny exhibits because the exhibit is offensive to their "stakeholders", how credible are the museums?