Sorry, you have the wrong number

I was watching the news last night and caught this story about the mishandling of medical information. I was interested because privacy issues really interest me in this digital world, and as the story unfolded, I grew increasingly disgusted. Here is what happened:

A nursing home was trying to fax some medical records to a doctor. The records turned up on the fax machine in some woman's house. This "good Samaritan" calls the news to tell them about what happened and she gets an interview on the eleven o'clock news. It turns out that the only difference between the phone number of the intended recipient and this woman is the last digit.

The news story talks about the increase of theft of medical identity and the consequences for the person handling the  information - like loosing their job.

So someone may loose their job because they misdialed the phone? The woman who received the fax could take the time to find the news hotline but couldn't take the time to get the name of the sender off the header of the fax and let them know they had the wrong number; or, worst case, look at the caller id on the fax machine and send a fax back letting them know. Shame on you lady.

Shame on the news organization too for running this - I'll use the term loosely -- news. People dial the wrong number all the time, and it isn't news.

Rest in Peace

Tony was just in my office last week -- a week ago today as a matter of fact. When I asked him how he was doing he said "not good Paule. My wife ain't doing so well." He spent an hour telling me all that was going on with Jennifer. He told me about how her cancer had come back, in her spine, and how she had been recovering well from that, but then it showed up in her organs and the treatments weren't helping.
They decided to stop the treatments, and try to make the most of the good days. Between the pain and the medications, it sounded like those were few and far between. He told me that she was in a wheel chair, but she had a good day recently and took it to the mall. He smiled while he told me about that.
My heart went out to Tony. I was shocked to learn this morning that she had passed last night. May she rest in peace.

The Big Scare

I had only turned my back for a second. I turned back around just in time to catch the Mrs. in mid air, on her way down to the water. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the toy X was riding around on half in the water and half on the pool deck.

Then I found him. He was under the water and doing what he had been trained to do. I saw him roll over onto his back, and he was floating to the top -- just as the Mrs. scooped him up.

That moment made all the screaming, all the crying, all the frustration we went through with the swimming lessons worth it.