Apologies instead of condolences

Terrible mistake made by a dutch hospital.

Photo: Apologies instead of condolences

The wife of a patient, who had been treated in the ICU of the Medisch Spectrum Twente Hospital after receiving serious burns during a barbecue accident, received a questionnaire asking her to tell the hospital management about her experience with condolences she had received. The hospital letter arrived just as her husband arrived home. Its opening sentence read: ‘Recently your husband died in the intensive care ward….’ The hospital offered its apologies … better than condolences!

31.08.2007

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