CONNECTICUT CENTER FOR PATIENT SAFETY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- President of the Officers & Directors Team
Job Titles:
- Secretary of the Officers & Directors Team
Donna has 20+ years health care experience in a variety of areas including quality improvement, IT, health plan operations, finance, and as a caregiver. She has been an advocate for patient and family engagement. She is the recent past Co-chair and founding member of Middlesex Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) and currently serves on other PFACs and committees as a patient member.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Officers & Directors Team
Fran's commitment to patient safety began when his wife died of a preventable medical error. He established a non-profit foundation in her memory and has vowed to work along with the CT Center for Patient Safety on patient safety issues, education and preventing medical harm. Fran is currently a real estate developer, a restaurateur, and he works in the insurance industry.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Immediate past President
- Member of the Officers & Directors Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Officers & Directors Team
- Vice President of Continuum of Care Services
Jim Kinsey is the Vice President of Continuum of Care Services at Planetree International, a not-for-profit organization that provides education and information in a collaborative community of healthcare organizations, facilitating efforts to create person-centered care in healing environments. Jim is a regular contributor to the Connecticut Patient Safety Newsletter and he has recently co-authored a chapter and served as an advisor for the book, Managing the Long-Term Care Facility: Practical Approaches to Providing Quality Care, (Perley editor).
Katherine, we call her Katty, was born on January 1, 1999. She was our first child and my husband rushed me to the emergency room when I went into labor.
I had been diagnosed with a separation of the placenta, bleeding and indications of fetal distress when I was eight months pregnant. But the obstetrical staff gave me a labor-inducing drug, pitocin, and delayed performing a cesarean section. My baby suffered severe oxygen deprivation with resulting brain damage and cerebral palsy.
Katty was in intensive care for two months and has already had two surgeries. She has serious reflux problem and has to be suctioned frequently. She'll never be able to eat-she has what they call a G tube for eating. I can't just leave her because I never know what she might need and I am the one who knows how to do it.
She is a bright little girl trapped in a body that won't work for her. She gets very frustrated and cries and carries on. But she is smart. We can see her mind working and she has had enough body control to begin to learn how to sign. She can "sign" daddy, hungry, apple, goodbye
I was told she would probably just lie on the floor for most of her life. But that's not true. She is smart and she follows a lot of what is going on around her. She is amazing. She will never be able to cross a street, write her name or live a normal life. But she is amazing.
Katty faces a lifetime of extraordinary challenges because of her reduced capabilities. Restricting a jury from compensating Katty for the way her life was changed is wrong. It seems that the way to reduce the cost of malpractice is to stop tragic injuries like hers from happening in the first place.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Member of the Officers & Directors Team
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Officers & Directors Team
Nilda Paris hails from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Like many young people, she took the challenge of immigrating to the United States in 1985, settling in the city of Bridgeport CT. While in Puerto Rico, she studied at the Interamerican University of Hato Rey in General Science and Biology, earning an associate degree and certification in surgical nursing. Facing a language barrier, in 1985, she decided to resume her studies in the medical field which led to her certification as a CNA, Phlebotomist, EKG Technician and her completing a bachelor's degree in chaplaincy and pastoral care. These accomplishments have allowed her entry to work in various medical institutions for fifteen years.
In 2009 she began to get involved as a volunteer in different humanitarian organizations such as the American Red Cross, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Medical Response Corp. with the local Department of Public Health, Notary Public and so much more. Seeing that there was a need in the Latino and minority communities, she used her passion for charitable work to become a volunteer and be the voice of her community. Since 2016, Nilda works as a CCHW Outreach Coordinator for the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety (CTCPS). She also sits on the Board of Directors for CTCPS, Women in Recovery Education Corp, the Connecticut Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the Community Health Worker Association of CT. She is also a member of the Connecticut Healthcare-Associated Infections Advisory Committee, the Community Health Worker Advisory Board, and the National Community Health Workers Association.
She received recognition from her community contribution as a "Volunteer of the Year" 2017-2018 granted by the CERT emergency management and the "Unsung Hero" award in 2019 granted by W.I.R.E.
Job Titles:
- Honorary Board Member
- Member of the Officers & Directors Team