Talia’s Mom Reflects on Her Message and Its Impact

Talia’s mom, Naomi Kirtner, recently wrote about what it was like, at great emotional cost, to present four lectures in Kansas City in two days, including the 29th Annual Flanigan Lecture, about the death of her daughter.

Naomi and her husband, Jeff Goldenberg, founded Talia’s Voice: Projects for Patient Safety after Talia died because people in charge wouldn’t listen.

“What we didn’t realize,” wrote Naomi, “is how integrated this set of four lectures would feel; how lucky it seemed to get to join the whole of the medical community in Kansas City, how talking about Talia’s experiences and death could reach members from all parts of the broader medical community.”

Naomi describes several connections made during these lectures, including a truly remarkable one with one woman at the Flanigan Lecture, who turned out to have been online with Talia in a group chat one hour before Talia died.