Throughout most of his life, 19th century French chemist Louis Pasteur insisted that germs were the cause of disease, not the body. It wasn't until Pasteur was nearing the end of his life that he came to believe just the opposite. After reaching this conclusion, he declined treatment for potentially curable pneumonia, reportedly saying, "It is the soil, not the seed."(1) In other words, a germ (the seed) causes disease when our bodies (the soil) provide a hospitable environment.

Dr. Spath did an excellent job of using the error as a springboard to explain the importance of an open and sharing environment of error reporting and learning. Although limited details on the error itself were provided, the information that was contained in the case report does give readers an opportunity to more thoroughly review their own systems to discover if an error such as this can happen in their emergency department (ED).