Rory’s Law -- major effort underway to ensure kids kept safe in ER

Condolences to the parents and family. With due consideration and resspect of their efforts, they are missing the point and root cause of their son's horrific death. They should be devoting their efforts to getting the Federal Government, including President Obama and the Executive Branch, and the Congress to enforce the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act and get the ill designed electronic medical record devices that governed their son's care vetted for safety, efficacy, and usability. At present, these medical devices have NO surveillance or premarket safety assessment as a medical device. NONE. ZERO! Little does the public know that the electronic medical record of that ER, due to flaws in design, likely, was the culprit, the root cause of his death. Its failure to notify(a national crisis in EMR run care) that there was a new result impeded the doctors from seeing and connecting the dots to diagnose the criticality of Rory in a timely manner. There have been innumerable deaths because of this. Rory was a guinea pig for the hospital and the EMR vendor. The doctors, in a way, too, are guineq pigs.

@agree with blackbearpause. Too many mistakes are caused by miscommunication and often by understaffed labs and overworked people.

Count me in for the establishment of 'Rory's Law'. Having Rory's name attached to a law protecting children will make people think twice before they ignore red flags in the test results.

As a nurse I know unfortunately they are way over worked and often lab results can not always be immediately addressed. But anything of the critical levels should be immediately called to the MD and nurses by the lab itself. The lab should also get the name of the person they delivered the message to. All to often lab results are just faxed to other persons. This should not be the case with critical lab values.This is clearly the results of poor communication between departments.

So sad... As an emergency room nurse I have to wonder when health care workers have become so negligent and so untrained not to notice when someone is seriously ill. My heart and prayers go out to this family.

Medical doctors and other health care professionals as well as state licensing boards are highly motivated to follow and uphold laws and regulations.

I'm very sorry about what happened to Rory, but I have to agree with the poster who said that we do NOT need "another law". We already have plenty. Rory's folks (as well as anyone else who suffers this fate) already have wide avenues for recourse. The "There ought to be a law!" mentality has done far more harm than good. That which governs best governs least.

It's a bit silly creating a law that tells people to do their job. The hospital staff failed this young boy. The doctor is guilty of gross malpractice leading to the death of Rory. She has already committed a crime so why do we need another law? Such tear jerk action is used by politicians for self publication with no obvious benefit to society. Instead of creating new laws, existing laws should be used to prosecute any contravention.

Rory's Law will happen. I was the creator of statewide petition and force behind the Jeffrey Curley Law in MA. From petition to voting in MA assembly to Governor Celucci signing the law as I stood to the right of him in the corner office with my sisters by my side...It took 4 weeks...I'm praying for Rory's Law and am happy to help in any way that I can...Kathy To this day Jeffrey Curley is well remembered in MA...His tragic death was not in vain.

We also saw Rory's parents on NBC this morning and applaud them for what they are doing. Rory is probably looking down so proud. I read the previous post from JamieLN an R.N.,and I know of two cases where nurses saved the lives of the children involved. It has always amazed me that these two nurses instantly knew the extent of the problem while the doctors involved did not. God bless nurses as they are invaluable. I recall a time after an operation when a kindly young nurse came to see me before I left to tell me what to expect in the coming year. I will never forget her and always pass her information on to friends after operations.

I saw Rory's parents this morning on the Today show. I'm just sorry we need to have a "law" like this (should've already been standard good medical practice) and that Rory had to die in order to bring it about. In all cases, if you think something is seriously wrong because your child isn't responding to treatment, advocate for your child by demanding answers, getting 2nd, 3rd, 4th opinions, and don't let the medical personnel make light of your concerns. Go with your instincts and make a lot of noise. I'm not blaming Rory's parents for this fiasco. The medical personnel failed them and Rory due to their gross incompetence. As an RN, you wouldn't be able to print what I think of Rory's pediatrician. My sincere condolences to Rory's family for his needless death. I applaud their efforts to make sure that others might live because of Rory.

I hope Rory's law will not only benefit New York but the nation. It is not just in New York that these things happen but elsewhere.