Beware the Grieving Warrior

Beware the Grieving Warrior: A Child's Preventable Death. A Struggle for Truth, Healing, and Change
Larry Hicock with John Lewis

"This book is a riveting read not only because of its heart-wrenching outcome and local characters, but because of its potent topicality: According to data collected from Britain, Australia and the U.S., an estimated 10,000 Canadians die in hospitals annually as a result of medical error, another 10,000 from incidents like hospital infections and unexpected drug complications. It's something we always hear, but due to a naive trust in our medical system, rarely put into action: You are your best advocate."
- Hamilton Magazine

In early 2003, Ontario's deputy chief coroner ordered an inquest into the tragic deaths of two children due to post-operative complications in a Hamilton hospital. The cases may never have been reported were it not for John Lewis, a registered nurse, and father of 11-year-old Claire -- one of the two children.

Beware the Grieving Warrior describes John's fight, in the midst of immeasurable grief and sorrow, against hospital staff and administration who failed to acknowledge their neglect. By turns shocking and heartrending, infuriating and inspiring, this book offers a chilling first-hand account of the obstacles and resistance Lewis encountered as he wound through a hellish maze of bureaucracy, until he won his day in court. The story is intensely intimate and brutally honest. It is about the suffering that inevitably results -- for patients, their families, and for the health care professionals involved -- when the truth is withheld.

At Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Beware-Grieving-Warrior-Preventable-Struggle/dp/1550226738
At ECW Press
http://www.amazon.com/Beware-Grieving-Warrior-Preventable-Struggle/dp/1550226738
As eBook
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/item/1554906733/Beware-the-Grieving-Warrior-A-Child's-Preventable-Death-A-Father's-Fight-for-Justice-eBook.html

CMAJ - Apology marks new era in response to medical error, hospital says
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/168/6/757

Grieving father John Lewis says there are no "real winners" in this case
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/eletters/168/6/757#273

Patient Beware
http://www.readersdigest.ca/mag/2004/06/patient.html

CMAJ: Medical errors, apologies and apology laws
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/180/1/11

Articles by J.E. Lewis at NIH
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&db=pubmed&term=Lewis%20JE%5Bau%5D&dispmax=50

Doctors find confession is good for the soul
http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/doctors-confess-their-fatal-mistakes/article185422.html

The foundation established in memory of Claire Lewis is called Revolution Hope.

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"Lawsuit could set precedent about end-of-life decisions

Robert Cribb
Toronto Star
Staff Reporter
September 04, 2010

As her father lay struggling for breath in a Toronto hospital bed, Joy Wawrzyniak pleaded with doctors to intervene and save his life.

Medical staff instead stood back and allowed the World War II veteran to die, against his wishes and to the shock of his daughter, Wawrzyniak claims in a stunning $1 million lawsuit filed this week against Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and two doctors responsible for her father’s care.

While Wawrzyniak and her father, Douglas (Dude) DeGuerre, had repeatedly requested he receive life-saving treatment in case of a medical emergency, doctors unilaterally overruled those wishes without consent or consultation, the lawsuit claims...."
Lawsuit could set precedent about end-of-life decisions