After losing her mother to a medical error, rather than sue for medical malpractice, Mary Brennan-Taylor made the decision to become a patient advocate. Brennan-Taylor has collaborated with the University of Buffalo to implement an innovative program that is designed to teach future doctors and nurses of the impact medical errors can have on patients as well as their families.

Brennan-Taylor's mother, Alice Brennan, died in 2009, six weeks after being admitted into the hospital for a common medical problem that was far from life threatening. Her death was caused by a number of medications used as well as three different hospital-acquired infections.

According to Brennan-Taylor, not only should the hospital have implemented procedures for infection control, the pharmacy should have been alerted to the deadly mixture of medications given to her mother. Unfortunately, she came to find that this instance of medical error is not uncommon. Actually, in a recent report by the Office of the Inspector General, every year there are approximately 180,000 Medicare patients who die due to some type of medical error.

Now, she works with the university's Patient Safety Research Center in helping to educate students on the impact of medical errors. Brennan-Taylor hopes to reduce common fatal medical errors, such as the ones suffered by her mother, by informing future medical professionals of her personal story and assisting the University of Buffalo in educating students on actions they can take to prevent such a tragedy.

Related Resource: University of Buffalo, "Medical Students Learn about the Tragic Impact of Medical Errors" Aug. 31, 2011