Dear Neighbors,
Yesterday the Senate passed the first substantive policy bill taken up since July.
We call the bill Laura's Law to honor Laura Levis, whose tragic death in 2016 has led her husband, Peter DeMarco, to campaign tirelessly for safety for everyone trying to go to an emergency room.
The bill requires hospital emergency departments to have legible and visible signage and lighting, and that they monitor all emergency access points, including those that may be locked.
All of these provisions seem common sense. But for Laura Levis on September 16, 2016, none of those basic things were available.
Laura Levis was 34 years old. She was a journalist and editor, a weight-lifter and a hiker, a wife and daughter and friend. On that night, she walked to Somerville Hospital to get help with an asthma attack. She followed the sign to the emergency department, and then the visible signage stopped. There were two doors, neither labeled. She went to the wrong one. The door was locked. She called 911, and eventually a nurse looked outside, but the lighting was so poor she didn't see Laura, collapsed on a bench, 29 feet from the emergency room entrance. No one was monitoring the security cameras, so they didn't see her either.
Laura died because she couldn't find the emergency room door, and the staff didn't find her.
Laura's husband, Peter DeMarco, wrote a heart-wrenching account of Laura's death in the Globe Magazine, called Losing Laura. It is is one of the most widely read articles in the magazine ever, and shook the many people who read it.
That article, and Peter's persistent work, led Cambridge Hospital Alliance to make many changes to make it safer. Other hospitals have conducted their own safety reviews, and discovered they've missed some things too.
But we need clear, enforceable standards. Surprisingly, lack of clear way-finding is not uncommon. After I spoke on the bill yesterday, someone texted me about her own experience:
"When my daughter at 31 had a heart attack holding one of my granddaughters, I jumped in the car when my son in law called from the ambulance. It was an hour's drive. I arrived and ran in flip flops to the closest lit hospital door. Locked. Ran to the next. Locked. I was hysterical by then and called my other daughter pleading for directions to the emergency room access. It was not marked. She was gone by the time I got in."
Peter has worked hard with Rep. Christine Barber and me, the Mass. Hospital Association, and advocates for people with disabilities to write this bill, which will set those standards. Many legislators have told me how moved they were by his memorable testimony last year before the Public Health Committee.
Now Rep. Barber will work to make sure the House passes the bill soon.
Today's press coverage tells more of the story: "I wasn't sure the day would come when there would be a vote," and "Senate Passes Laura's Law."
Stay safe. Stay in touch,