Former Boston Globe reporter Peter DeMarco’s recent story in the Boston Globe Magazine about his asthmatic wife’s collapse outside Somerville Hospital shed light on a process that failed her. The story detailed the numerous emergency response and health care system failures that occurred, without which Laura Levis might still be alive today.
In his piece, DeMarco detailed how Levis walked by herself to Somerville Hospital as an asthma attack was coming on, just before 4 a.m. on a September morning in 2016. As surveillance video shows, Levis was unable to decipher which of the two unmarked doors at the front was the correct entrance to the emergency room. Her asthma attack worsened as she chose one door but discovered it locked. Although she called 911 for help, a series of communication delays and human errors piled up, leaving her to collapse alone outside, out of breath. She was ultimately found about 10 minutes after she placed the call, but it was too late. Six days later, she died of hypoxic brain injury.
Jim Braude was joined by DeMarco, who recently sat down with hospital administrators.
