About the Author Lynn R. Parker and

How This Book Came to Be

My Education

• Diploma of Nursing: Muhlenberg Hospital School of Nursing, Plainfield, New Jersey
• Associate Degree in Science: Union County College, Cranford, New Jersey
• Bachelors of Science in Nursing: Kean University, Union, New Jersey
• Masters of Arts: New York University, New York, New York
• Adult Nurse Practitioner: New York University, New York, New York
• Legal Nurse Consultant, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York
• End-of-Life Care Nursing Consortium Certificate
• Massage and Other Natural Therapies Certification

How This Book Came To Be

I am a registered nurse, nurse practitioner and patient advocate for over twenty years. I have worked in the areas of obstetrics, internal medicine, oncology, pain management, natural and alternative medicine and end-of-life care. I have worked in large university medical centers, community hospitals, doctors’ offices and out-patient clinics.

Throughout my varied and diverse career I have found all healthcare settings have one thing in common - and that one thing is medical error. You can rest assured, wherever medical care is delivered medical errors occur. I have seen the tragedy of medical error with my own eyes and it has deeply affected me both personally and professionally.

I first became aware of medical error many years ago when I was 17 years old, a senior in high school. One day after school my close friend Yvonne and I went to my house to hang out. Suddenly Yvonne began having a sickle cell crisis. She was suffering and in horrible pain, she desperately needed oxygen, fluids and a blood transfusion. The trouble began – and ended - when she was given the wrong type of blood at the hospital. Yvonne died later that afternoon from a violent transfusion reaction.

Soon after I entered nursing a young mother I had been working with and be-friended was scheduled for a C-Section. The day before her surgery we eagerly anticipated the birth of her third little girl. We laughed and giggled as we talked about meeting her beautiful new daughter in the morning, however, that was not to be. During the surgery she received too much anesthesia and was left-brain dead. Three days later her family made the decision to remove her from life support. She left behind two small children, a newborn and a husband to grieve her for the rest of their lives. My heart still breaks every time I think of her.

Over the years I have witnessed the horror of hundreds of medical errors. My response has been to educate my patients about their conditions and the kind of care suggested by best practice standards and recommended in the national guidelines.

I taught and still do teach my patients how to ask their doctors questions and to investigate the answers they are given so that they -the patients themselves - can actively participate in making healthcare decisions that are safe and meet their unique needs, choices that are right for them.

And then one day in 2007 I found myself caring for a patient who came into the hospital for what was supposed to be a simple surgery and the expectation of being discharged in within two days. When I met him three months later he lay in a hospital bed unable to walk, talk, move or breathe on his own, because he had fallen victim to multiple medical errors.

At that point I just couldn’t take what I was seeing anymore. I felt like screaming and crying all at once. I had to do something to help prevent the tragedy of medical error from happening to as many people as I could. Something came over me I went home that night and began writing what is now known as, What Did The Doctor Just Say?

I wrote this book because I don’t want to see anymore medical errors, or patients whose lives are ruined and even ended by them. I wrote this book because I want to help prevent as many medical errors as I possibly can and I believe this book will help me to do just that.Please buy this book for yourself and for everyone you want to be safe, buy it for everyone you love to help all of you be safe and avoid the horrors of a medical error. I wrote this book so that you can get the kind of medical care you want need and deserve to have. In fact if my only accomplishment is to help you and your loved ones to be safer in the healthcare system I will consider this book a very huge success.