Give your testimony about Free Kill
We are working on two impactful campaigns. For both of them, we need you! We can only make a difference together. In place of our next monthly meeting we will be hosting a Zoom testimony session. The event will take place on Thursday, September 1st at 7:00 pm EST. To register, click the button.
What is a Zoom Testimony Session?
We will take turns talking in a recorded session (3-5 minutes each) about the gross negligent act that killed our loved ones, and ask for change. Following the recorded session, several volunteers will share these in various social media outlets including Twitter, Tik Tok, Facebook and more. The videos may also be used to raise awareness with legislators and on the victims pages section of the Florida Medical Rights Association website.
I want in! What do I need to do?
First, we would like to make sure that everyone has a turn. To do this, we have to do our best to share our loved one's story in an abbreviated but effective way. To accomplish this, preparation is the key.
Prepare something in writing.
Time yourself, and bring your timer to the testimony session to keep track of time.
What do I need to bring?
A photo of your loved one
A timer to keep track of how long you are sharing (3-5 minutes please)
Helpful tips:
Organize your content in a way that encourages others to listen. Over time I have experienced a lot of talking and listening about free kill cases. It is very challenging to talk about our losses, and if unprepared, losing track of what you wanted to say, and how long you are talking is easier than not. When emotions rise up, we are most likely to forget to say the most important things. To avoid this you can write your whole speech out, or use index cards to keep yourself on track.
Here is a great format to organize your speech in:
Start at the end of the story before you summarize the journey. Tell the audience what your loved one DIRECTLY one died from. Also, correspond the reason to the definition of gross negligence. Save the details. In a short explanation, details can cause listeners to be confused.
This is my story and an example of how I share it succinctly: My father died when the hospital staff overdosed him on sedatives. It was very clear in his chart that he had too much medication which caused him to stop breathing. On reviewing his chart in detail, we found acts of gross medical negligence, including that he was injected with drugs that 1. Are known to cause death when mixed and 2. One of the drugs was known to cause him extreme adverse reactions. The nurses noted the adverse reaction, but instead of stopping the drug, gave him more. They should have been trained to better understand the bad reactions he was having and the contraindications.
Hold up a photo of your loved one while you talk. Remind the audience that your loved one is a real person.
If you still have more time on the clock, share something that you loved about your departed loved one.
Ask the audience to support changing the law and name the Florida Statute (768.21, subsection 8), this really helps drive it home that the unbelievable law is in fact, real.
Also, because it is on video, bringing a photo or a collage of photos of your loved one will help remind the opposition that those lost to free kill are real people.