Josie's Story: A Mother's Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe

Sorrel King was a 32-year-old mother of four when her eighteen-month-old daughter, Josie, was horribly burned by water from a faulty water heater in the family s new Baltimore home. She was taken to Johns Hopkins renowned as one of the best hospitals in the world and Sorrel stayed in the hospital with Josie day-in and day-out until she had almost completely recovered. Just before her discharge, however, she was erroneously injected with methadone, and died soon after.

Sorrel s account of her unlikely path from grieving parent to nationally renowned advocate is interwoven with descriptions of her and her family s slow but steady road to recovery, and ends with a deeply affecting description of a ski trip they took recently. The sun is shining, her children are healthy, and they are all profoundly happy a condition that Sorrel has learned to appreciate all the more for Josie.

The book ends with a resource guide for patients, their families, and healthcare providers; it includes information about how to best manage a hospital stay and how to handle a medical error if one does occur.