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119 Penn Statim 1 (2014-2015)

handle is hein.journals/statim119 and id is 1 raw text is: The Lasting Legacy of a Case that was Lost Steve Cohen* Hospitals can be very dangerous places. Between 44,000 and 98,000 patients are killed every year in hospitals-and many more are injured-due to medical error. A landmark study, To Err is Human, conducted by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) uncovered these findings in 1999.' Josef Stalin is reputed to have said, A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths a statistic. The 1984 death of 18-year-old Libby Zion was a personal tragedy for her family. For the next ten years, that death was writ large on the public stage-first by criminal investigations, then by political inquiries, next by regulatory action, and finally by a civil suit whose trial was covered gavel-to-gavel by Court TV. Today, medical education throughout the United States has changed dramatically with regard to the number of hours young interns and residents can work, and how much supervision is required in teaching hospitals. These practices are guided by what are colloquially known as the Libby Zion rules. I. ONE NIGHT In March 1984, Libby Zion was a Bennington College freshman living at home in New York during the Vermont school's winter-work term. She was just finishing up an internship in the office of Manhattan * Steve Cohen is an Associate at Kramer Dillof Livingston & Moore in New York. Before completing law school and passing the Bar at age 62, he was a publisher at Time and Scholastic, and was CEO of three digital media start-ups. He is the author of six books and a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, City Journal, and other publications. He co-chaired the Clinton White House task force The Prescription for Reading Partnership and served as a Director of the United States Naval Institute and Reach Out and Read. He attended the United States Naval Academy and received his A.B from Brown University and his JD cum laude from New York Law School. 1. INST. OF MED., To ERR is HUMAN: BUILDING A SAFER HEALTH SYSTEM 1 (Mike Edington ed. 1999). 1

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