Detective probes hospital staffing in wife’s death
MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES — Police detective Tim Lillard has been spending the past year unofficially investigating the cause of her wife’s death in 2022. From his observation, Ann Picha-Lillard — his wife of almost 25 years — could still be alive today if it wasn’t for an understaffed hospital.
Understaffed systems negatively affect healthcare delivery
Lillard, who had spent every day in the hospital prior to her wife’s death, had observed that the staff was scarce at the DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital.
“The alarms would go off for the medications, they’d come into the room, shut off the alarm when they get low, run to the medication room, come back, set them down, go to the next room, shut off alarms,” Lillard recalled.
“And that was going on all the time.”
Days before her death, Ann’s health seemed to have stabilized. Nurses told Tim that she could be discharged to a rehabilitation center in a few days.
By November 17, Ann was no longer sedated, and the family counted the days until they could bring her home.
But less than 24 hours later, Ann’s lung condition worsened. The medical staff told Tim that Ann’s heart rate had spiked and she had developed another infection the night before.
Completely avoidable death
“Everybody kept telling me: sepsis, sepsis, sepsis,” Tim said.
Though one of the leading causes of death in U.S. hospitals, experts believe that 80% of sepsis deaths are avoidable. Hospital staff need to pay close attention to small change in vital signs to prevent sepsis onset.
One study revealed that for every additional patient assigned to a single nurse, the mortality rate from sepsis increased by 12%.
“I without a doubt believe 100% Ann would still be here today if they had staffing levels, mandatory staffing levels, especially in ICU,” Lillard said.
In November, almost a year after Ann’s demise, Tim testified before Michigan lawmakers in support of the Safe Patient Care Act, which pushes for mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios and transparency in staffing levels.
The legislation aims to boost healthcare delivery by ensuring staffing ratios are healthy and limiting mandatory overtime for nurses.
“The only way these hospitals and the administrations are gonna make any changes, and even start moving towards making it better, is if they’re forced to. Please take action so that no other person or other family endures this loss. You can make a difference in saving lives,” Lillard said.
