2025-05-14
53 分钟Hey there, Stephen Dubner.
We are replaying a series we made in 2023 called How to Succeed at Failing.
This is the second episode.
We have updated all facts and figures as necessary.
As always, thanks for listening.
In early 2007, Carol Hemmelgarn's life was forever changed.
By a failure, a tragic medical failure.
At the time, she was working for Pfizer, the huge U.S. pharmaceutical firm.
So she was familiar with the health care system.
But what changed her life wasn't a professional failure.
This was personal.
My nine-year-old daughter, Alyssa, was diagnosed with leukemia, ALL, on a Monday afternoon.
And she died 10 days later.
In this day and age of health care, children don't die of leukemia in nine days.
She died from multiple medical errors.
She got a hospital-acquired infection, which we know today can be prevented.
She was labeled.
And when you attach labels to patients, a bias is formed,
and it's often difficult to look beyond that bias.
So one of the failures in my daughter's care is that she was labeled with anxiety.