Author Martine Ehrenclou, MA, received a thorough education in hospital-patient care with the extended hospitalizations of both her mother and godmother. She spent the equivalent of a full year in three separate hospitals in different states. Having witnessed startling numbers of medical errors, medication mistakes, hospital-acquired infectious diseases, and a number of other “never events,” Martine was determined to find out if her family members’ hospitalizations were isolated incidents.
After interviewing fifty family members, she found out that in fact her experiences were the norm. Families all reported feeling completely lost, overwhelmed and stymied by the hospital system. They couldn’t reach doctors when they needed them, nurses didn’t respond to the call button, medication mistakes put their loved ones in peril, and infectious diseases delayed patients’ recoveries, if in fact the patients made it out of the hospital alive. Many were convinced that medical errors had killed their family members.
Martine then interviewed over 150 registered nurses, physicians, hospital social workers, psychologists and family members to find out how to empower families to become proactive advocates for their hospitalized loved ones. The results of her efforts and hundreds of hours of research are compiled into her award winning book, Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide To Get Your Loved One Out Alive.
Martine is an author and patient advocate. She has had several of her articles on hospital patient safety published in national magazines and newspapers and has been interviewed on numerous nationally syndicated radio shows. She currently lectures on the topic of patient safety at hospitals and “How to Survive a Hospital Stay” at universities, organizations and bookstores, and is a regular contributor for Parentgiving.com. Martine has also had stories published in bestselling books, has written for newspapers and magazines, and with past businesses has appeared on national TV talk and news shows (ABC World News Tonight, Phil Donahue, Jenny Jones and more) in national magazines (Time, Inc., The Economist, and more) and in national newspapers (Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe and more).
She received her Masters degree with honors in psychology from Pepperdine University, Los Angeles. She runs writing groups for at-risk teenagers and adults and publishes literary magazines of her students’ work.
Martine lives in Los Angeles, CA, with her husband and their daughter.
