Josie, Near Misses, and Your Voice

Recently I had the profound privilege of hearing Sorrell King speak. If you don’t know her story, it’s one every healthcare professional — and really, every human being — should hear.

Sorrell’s daughter, Josie King, was a bright, beautiful little girl who died tragically — and preventably — in a hospital. Josie’s decline was due not to lack of technology, not to rare disease, not to unavoidable human error. It was due to something far more common, and far more dangerous: undertraining, overstraining, and a culture where staff were too rushed or afraid to speak up… and where a mother’s voice was dismissed because she wasn’t “medical.”

That voice — a mother who knew something was wrong with her child — could have saved Josie’s life. But no one listened.

Your voice is the most important safety tool. Whether you’re a nurse, a patient, a tech, a physician, or a parent — the ability to speak up, to say “something’s wrong,” is the first and strongest line of defense. And the ability to listen may be someone’s last chance.

Rather than allow grief to consume her, Sorrell King has spent the last 20 years turning heartbreak into hope, working with major hospitals like Johns Hopkins and many others to change the culture of healthcare. Her message isn’t just about preventing another tragedy like Josie’s. It’s about building systems and teams where such tragedies don’t get close to happening in the first place.

One thing Sorrell said struck me deeply. She said people often ask how to prepare for “the big event” — that catastrophic, worst-case scenario we all fear. But then she said this:

“Don’t worry about the ‘big event.’ ‘It’ should never happen.”

And that’s the point. The goal isn’t just to respond better to disasters. The goal is to build cultures where disasters don’t happen — because we’re catching things early. Because we’re listening to each other. Because we’ve created space for every voice — from patients to physicians to techs to family members — to be heard.

We do this not through grand gestures, but through little tweaks. Little improvements. Little moments of courage. The strength to speak up. The humility to listen. The commitment to double-check, to ask the question, to call out what feels off.

Near misses should be celebrated — not as lucky breaks, but as proof that our systems and our people are working. That we’re paying attention. That we’re looking out for one another.

This is the culture we must pursue:

A culture of communication.

A culture of safety nets.

A culture of mutual protection.

A culture where bravery is just as important as knowledge.

Because in healthcare, we are never just taking care of patients. We are taking care of each other. And we are each other’s best hope for catching what needs to be caught — before it’s too late.

So, let’s keep chasing a little more “betterness” each day. Let’s build spaces where speaking up is safe, listening is automatic, and everyone — no matter their title — sees themselves as a vital part of the safety net.

Let’s make sure “it” never happens again.

For Josie. For every patient. For each other.

🎧 Listen here: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/transformationship/episodes/Josie--Near-Misses--and-Your-Voice-e33us0l