AdvoKAYte: Holding Healthcare Accountable

About AdvoKAYte: Holding Healthcare Accountable

Most people first heard of Kay Van Wey through the shocking true story of Dr. Death—the infamous Dallas neurosurgeon who maimed and killed patients. Kay stood up to him and the system that enabled him, fighting for the people whose lives he shattered. That case made headlines around the world, but for Kay, it was never about the spotlight. It was about the patients—the mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons—who deserved answers, justice, and dignity. Now, on AdvoKAYte: Holding Healthcare Accountable, Kay brings that same passion to a new mission: exposing a healthcare system that too often puts profits ahead of patient safety. With more than 40 years of experience as a medical malpractice attorney, Kay has seen firsthand the devastating impact of preventable medical errors—and uncovered their root causes. She calls out dangerous physicians, profit-driven hospitals, fraudulent schemes, and a system designed to keep patients in the dark. A lawsuit against a negligent provider can bring justice for the victims, but Kay is fighting for something bigger. She will always stand with individuals and families harmed by medical errors—but she is on a mission to reform the broken healthcare system that is vital to all of us... patients. This podcast is about more than cases—it’s about change. Patients need a voice. Their voices must be amplified—so loudly and so clearly—that politicians can no longer ignore them. Only then can we demand accountability, reform the system, and make healthcare safer for everyone. Because as Kay learned from Dr. Death—and countless other cases—the problems are fixable. What’s missing is the will to fix them. And that starts here. Knowledge is power. Strength comes in numbers. It’s time for patients to matter more than profits—and for preventable medical errors to end.

Publisher

RNCN

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Nov 2025

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

35 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Oct 2026

   "I Did the Right Thing and Got Fired" | Texas Safe Harbor Law for Nurses | AdvoKAYte S2 Ep. 17

   Texas is one of two states in the country, along with New Mexico, with a law that protects nurses who are fired for invoking Safe Harbor. Most employment attorneys have never heard of it. Most nurses who need it cannot find anyone to take their case. That is not because the law is weak. It is because almost no one is enforcing it. Kay Van Wey sits down with Amy Carter of Carter Law Group, a trial lawyer who spent years in pharmaceutical litigation before building a practice around the people everyone else turns away. Amy represents employees with legitimate cases who can't find attorneys because they don't make six figures and can't afford hourly rates after losing their jobs. Lately, that includes a lot of nurses. FOR NURSES: If you have been retaliated against for invoking Safe Harbor, you have 180 days from the last retaliatory action to bring a case. Do not let that deadline pass. WHAT YOU'LL UNDERSTAND BY THE END Why nurses with legitimate Safe Harbor retaliation cases can't find a lawyer, and the specific reason most employment attorneys miss it What the 60-day presumption is and why it shifts the burden of proof to the hospital What counts as retaliation under the statute and why it does not have to be a firing to start the 180-day clock How to invoke Safe Harbor correctly: verbally first, in writing by the end of your shift What Safe Harbor actually protects and what it doesn't What good faith means under the law and what it does not cover What damages are recoverable, including lost wages, emotional harm, and why the hospital pays your attorney's fees if you win Why the statute is effectively meaningless if nurses don't bring cases, and what changes when they do Safe Harbor is one of several Texas laws that protect nurses from retaliation, alongside protections for requesting a nurse peer review committee determination and for reporting substandard care to a supervisor, the Texas Board of Nursing, or an outside entity. Amy walks through how they fit together under the Texas Nursing Practice Act. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 0:21 Welcome Amy Carter, Carter Law Group 3:32 From Pharmaceutical Litigation to Representing Workers Nobody Else Will Take 6:40 "I've Already Talked to Three Lawyers": Why Nurses Can't Find an Attorney 9:27 What the Safe Harbor Statute Actually Says Including the 60-Day Presumption 11:03 "They Should Have Called It the Nurse Empowerment Act" 12:34 The 180-Day Deadline and the Other Statutes That Protect Nurses 13:32 Good Faith and What Safe Harbor Is, and Is Not, For 16:35 How to Invoke It: Verbal First, Written by End of Shift 17:39 What Safe Harbor Protects, What It Doesn't, and How Hospitals React 19:20 Anti-Retaliation Does Not Stop Retaliation. Here Is What It Gives You. 21:01 What Counts as Retaliation and When the 180-Day Clock Starts 22:33 "I'll Just Get Another Job": Why That Is the Wrong Call 23:42 Damages: Lost Wages, Emotional Harm, Attorney's Fees, and Punitive Awards 27:41 Why Nurses Need to Bring These Cases Even When the Numbers Feel Small 29:44 Amy Searched WestLaw. Here Is What She Found. 30:03 What Changes When Nurses Start Enforcing the Law 32:35 Amy Carter's Podcast: Fight Like a Mother ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If you are a nurse, have you been retaliated against after invoking Safe Harbor, or been turned away by an attorney who didn't know the law existed? Tell us in the comments. We read every one. NEXT WEEK: Kalee Pair puts Kay Van Wey in the hot seat on moral injury, why hospitals protect their biggest producers over their nurses, and what every nurse in Texas needs to know about Safe Harbor. LAST WEEK: Melanie Hampton on what nurses are up against inside hospitals https://youtu.be/34ExykbEhbI (https://youtu.be/34ExykbEhbI) At Van Wey & Metzler Law Firm in Dallas, Texas, Kay Van Wey and her team advocate for families affected by medical malpractice, hospital negligence, birth injuries, surgical errors, preventable medical harm, and unsafe healthcare systems. Connect with Amy Carter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-carter-00aabb6/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-carter-00aabb6/) Carter Law Group: https://www.linkedin.com/company/carter-law-group-clg/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/carter-law-group-clg/) Fight Like a Mother Podcast: https://fightlikeamotherthepodcast.com/ (https://fightlikeamotherthepodcast.com/) AdvoKAYte Podcast: https://www.vanweylaw.com/advokayte-podcasts/ (https://www.vanweylaw.com/advokayte-podcasts/)

2. 

   30 Sept 2026

   The Nurse Questioned the Order. Then the Surgeon Cursed Her Out. | AdvoKAYte S2 Ep. 16

   Your nurse is at your bedside for 12 hours at a time. Your doctor rounds once a day. When your vital signs shift or your labs change, the nurse sees it first. What happens to you next depends on whether that nurse is free to speak up. In too many hospitals, she isn't. Kay Van Wey sits down with Melanie Hampton, a registered nurse, advanced practice nurse, and legal nurse consultant who spent close to 15 years in emergency and critical care before moving to the legal side. Melanie has seen what happens when nurses do their jobs. She has also seen what happens when hospital culture, abusive physicians, and institutional priorities get in the way. This is not a conversation about bad nurses. It is about what good nurses are up against, and what patients need to know to protect themselves. FOR NURSES: the Texas Safe Harbor section starts at 28:17. What it covers, how to invoke it in under two minutes, what good faith actually requires, and what hospitals do anyway. WHAT YOU'LL UNDERSTAND BY THE END Why patient advocacy, not task completion, is a nurse's primary legal and professional obligation What happens to patient safety when the culture tells nurses to sit down, check the boxes, and not rock the boat Why hospitals shield physicians who abuse nursing staff, and the phrase administrators use when they do it Why documentation is a nurse's protection when nobody is listening, and how it holds up in a deposition How patients and families can escalate a care concern, including the exact chain of command inside a hospital What the Texas Safe Harbor Act is, how a nurse invokes it, and what it protects Why retaliation still happens even though the law prohibits it, and what it looks like in practice ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 0:23 Welcome Melanie Hampton: Nurse, APN, Legal Nurse Consultant 3:55 From the Bedside to the Courtroom: How Legal Nursing Works 6:28 A Nurse's First Obligation Is Not the Doctor's Orders 8:25 "Who Am I to Question a Doctor?" 11:16 Nurses Are the Eyes and Ears of the Physician 12:04 What a Real Culture of Safety Sounds Like 13:49 "He's a Prolific Surgeon": When Hospitals Protect the Wrong Person 17:48 Why Nurses Are Leaving, and Why That Is a Patient Safety Crisis 18:18 If You Didn't Document It, It Didn't Happen 21:14 How Patients and Families Can Advocate for Themselves 25:32 The Chain of Command: How to Escalate a Care Concern 28:17 The Texas Safe Harbor Act: What It Is and How to Invoke It 33:47 Good Faith and the Limits of Safe Harbor 35:17 Retaliation: What Hospitals Do Anyway 37:04 Kay's Message to Nurses ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Nurses: have you ever invoked Safe Harbor, or wanted to and didn't? Patients: has a nurse ever caught something that changed your outcome? Tell us in the comments. We read every one. NEXT WEEK: an attorney who represents nurses retaliated against for speaking up about patient harm. RELATED: Luke Metzler on how hospitals and institutions are held liable — https://youtu.be/cOSrapVxrX0?si=Ke9hhanaY1xPppcj (https://youtu.be/cOSrapVxrX0?si=Ke9hhanaY1xPppcj) RELATED: Why the courthouse door is closed to 99% of malpractice victims — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFGfpy1H6Gw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFGfpy1H6Gw) At Van Wey & Metzler Law Firm in Dallas, Texas, Kay Van Wey and her team advocate for families affected by medical malpractice, hospital negligence, birth injuries, surgical errors, preventable medical harm, and unsafe healthcare systems. AdvoKAYte Podcast: https://www.vanweylaw.com/advokayte-podcasts/ (https://www.vanweylaw.com/advokayte-podcasts/) Van Wey & Metzler: https://www.vanweylaw.com/ (https://www.vanweylaw.com/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vanweylaw/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/vanweylaw/) Instagram: @vanweymetzlerlaw and @advokaytepodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/advokaytepodcast/ (https://www.facebook.com/advokaytepodcast/)

3. 

   23 Sept 2026

   Why Doctors Miss Strokes in Young Patients | AdvoKAYte S2 Ep. 15

   Younger patients are seven times more likely to have a stroke missed than older patients. Dizziness is the symptom most often mistaken for something harmless. Researchers estimate that up to 200,000 Americans experience a diagnostic error each year, and that between 40,000 and 80,000 of them die as a result. Yet misdiagnosis remains one of the least studied and least tracked problems in patient safety. Not because it doesn't matter, but because it is extraordinarily hard to count. In this second conversation, Kay Van Wey sits down again with Dr. Matt Austin, a patient safety researcher at Johns Hopkins who is an engineer by training rather than a physician, and who studies why good clinicians arrive at wrong answers. They go deep into the science of diagnostic error: what the literature shows, why stroke is the most commonly missed vascular event, who gets missed most often, and why a patient waiting in an emergency room for an inpatient bed is quietly facing higher odds of a medication error, a delayed order, or worse. This is not a conversation about bad doctors. It is a conversation about the systems that set doctors and patients up to fail, and about what the research says we can do differently. Watch Part 1 first: Dr. Matt Austin on why America's healthcare system keeps failing patients — https://youtu.be/A4bi8_-DPeY (https://youtu.be/A4bi8_-DPeY) WHAT YOU'LL UNDERSTAND BY THE END Why diagnostic error is dramatically undercounted, and what the "iceberg" of misdiagnosis actually looks like How the missing feedback loop in medicine lets a physician repeat the same misdiagnosis for years without ever learning they got it wrong Why "if you hear hoofbeats, think horses" is both good medicine and a leading driver of diagnostic error Why stroke is the most commonly missed vascular event, and why dizziness is the presentation most likely to be dismissed Why younger patients are seven times more likely to have a stroke missed, and why women are more often misdiagnosed than men What ER boarding is, how it differs from ER crowding, and why it produces worse outcomes for the sickest patients How imaging access, neurology availability, and where you happen to live shape whether you get the right diagnosis ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 1:45 Welcome Back, Dr. Matt Austin 1:58 The Iceberg Problem: Why Diagnostic Error Is Undercounted 4:01 The Missing Feedback Loop in Medicine 4:34 Cognitive Bias: When Horses Make You Miss the Zebra 6:48 Why Misdiagnosis Is Harder to Study Than Falls or Infections 9:08 Stroke: The Most Commonly Missed Vascular Event 11:52 Who Gets Missed: Women, Younger Patients, Atypical Presentations 14:33 When the Stroke Center Has No Neurologist: Kay's Family Story 19:55 Could AI Perform the HINTS Exam? 20:40 ER Boarding vs. ER Crowding: What's the Difference? 24:39 Why Boarding Leads to Worse Outcomes for Sick Patients 25:33 What's Causing the Boarding Crisis, and What Could Fix It 27:17 Four Days in the ER: What Boarding Did to One Patient 28:50 Coming Next: Black Boxes in the OR and AI in Surgery ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Have you or someone you love been misdiagnosed, or waited in an emergency room for a hospital bed? Tell us in the comments. We read every one. At Van Wey & Metzler Law Firm in Dallas, Texas, Kay Van Wey and her team advocate for families affected by medical malpractice, hospital negligence, birth injuries, surgical errors, preventable medical harm, and unsafe healthcare systems. Dr. Matt Austin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-austin-04034114/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-austin-04034114/) Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jhm-armstrong-institute-for-patient-safety-and-quality/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/jhm-armstrong-institute-for-patient-safety-and-quality/) Armstrong Institute on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ7iW30ZHlXcYrXJcUsOooA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ7iW30ZHlXcYrXJcUsOooA) AdvoKAYte Podcast: https://www.vanweylaw.com/advokayte-podcasts/ (https://www.vanweylaw.com/advokayte-podcasts/) Van Wey & Metzler: https://www.vanweylaw.com/ (https://www.vanweylaw.com/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vanweylaw/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/vanweylaw/)

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

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