Chris Jerry still hears the screams of his 2-year-old daughter, Emily, after a medical mistake put her into agonizing pain and led to her death three years ago.

His grief was overwhelming, but it drove him to give meaning to Emily’s death, suffered at the hands of a pharmacy technician who mistakenly gave the toddler a fatal dose of saline solution.

To make sure no other child would suffer the same fate, he and others fought through the labyrinth of the Statehouse to gain passage of a law to govern pharmacy technicians. To hold the people who killed his daughter responsible, they fought for justice in both the criminal and civil courts.

Jerry won on all counts. The law was changed. The pharmacist who failed to supervise the technician was convicted. Jerry and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Kelly, won a $7 million settlement from Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

But the money did not take away his pain or make up for what he lost. Jerry’s life went into a downward spiral. His marriage fell apart, and he lost custody of his two children. He got into trouble with drugs and the law as he searched for a way to make something positive out of the tragedy.

Then it came to him – Emily’s Foundation.

Jerry, 41, of Willoughby Hills, decided to use a chunk of the settlement money to start a charity. He hopes the foundation will be active by the end of the summer to push for a national law to govern the work of pharmacy technicians and help prevent medical errors like the one that killed his daughter.

The foundation will also operate a Web site where grieving parents can come together to console one another and offer advice. A spokesman for T.S. Wrobel & Associates of San Francisco confirmed that Jerry hired the firm to form the foundation and to apply for nonprofit status.

Jerry will run the foundation and serve as an advocate for children’s health issues.

“I’ve learned from losing my daughter that there are large bureaucracies in the medical community,” he said. “Children are getting sick and dying because of mistakes and because drug companies are forcing hospitals to cut corners. We will present these kinds of issues and force change by bringing them to the forefront.”

On Feb. 26, 2006, the Jerrys went to Rainbow for what was to be Emily’s final round of chemotherapy to treat her cancer. A grapefruit-sized tumor had been found in her abdomen, but the regimen had been effective and the tumor was gone. Still, doctors were unsure if she needed one final treatment to eliminate any possibility that the tumor might return.

The Jerrys talked it over and decided to have the last treatment on their daughter’s second birthday. The following week they would all go to Disney World and celebrate her birthday and her victory over cancer.

But there would be no celebration.

Katie Dudash, a pharmacy technician, prepared the saline packet to be used in the chemo mixture. She made a new bag from saline concentrate. Dudash told investigators she didn’t know why she just didn’t grab a prepared bag of saline instead of mixing a new one. She said she was distracted because she was planning her wedding.

The saline solution she made was 23 percent salt. It should have been less than 1 percent salt. Emily screamed in pain when the solution was put into her body, then went into a coma.

Emily died March 1, 2006.

The supervising pharmacist, Eric Cropp, lost his license and pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter this May for improperly supervising Dudash. He is to be sentenced on July 17 and faces up to five years in prison. Dudash, who was not charged, agreed to testify if the case went to trial.

Kelly Jerry attended all of Cropp’s court proceedings in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Chris Jerry did not. He said he feels no anger toward Cropp.

“I feel very sorry for the pharmacist,” he said. “This guy is facing a prison sentence, and I know it was an accident.”

After Emily’s death, Chris and Kelly Jerry’s marriage crumbled. In early 2008, she filed for divorce. It is expected to become final this month.

erry admitted he had trouble coping with the loss of his daughter. Painesville police arrested him late last year for possession of marijuana and resisting arrest. His case was diverted to a mental health court for adjudication.

His wife took out a court protection order against him, which he violated once.

He sought psychological counseling as he searched for a way to work through his turmoil. But he never forgot his daughter’s screams and her pain. So he decided that to help himself he had to begin to help others.

Jerry began counseling families in local hospitals whose children were on life-support systems. He did not offer legal advice but simply was there as one who understands what they were going through.

“I can speak to these people because I have gone through something similar, I know what they need to hear,” he said. “I can relate to them in every way.”

And his work with Emily’s Foundation will give him a purpose.

“God gave me my big mouth and goofy personality for a reason,” he said. “I’m planning on running this full time. I feel like my daughter is watching over me, like my personal guardian angel, guiding me in my efforts.”

“There was an egregious error and the family believes it occurred on numerous occasions,” Owen Dunn said.

Dunn’s grandfather, Joe Hayduk, had a bladder disorder but pharmacy records show he was given a drug for diabetes instead. Hayduk died within months.

NewsChannel5 found it took two letters from the family and two months before the State Pharmacy Board even began asking questions. Finally, a pharmacy board investigation resulted in a $750 fine. The pharmacist kept his license.

“None of his colleagues in the medical profession raised the error to the attention of the right monitoring agency,” Dunn said.

According to a government report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, medication errors harm 1.5 million people every year.

In Ohio, there’s no law requiring pharmacists to report mistakes. They can be kept secret.

NewsChannel5’s On Your Side investigation found the State Pharmacy Board allows pharmacists to stay on the job even after making deadly mistakes.

NewsChannel5 found 58 prescription mistakes over a full 10 months. Mistakes finally uncovered by pharmacy board investigators who found one patient “died due to a brain injury resulting from severe hypoglycemia.”

The pharmacist was fired but simply moved on to another pharmacy. It’s called “pharmacy hopping.”

Kelly Jerry’s 2-year-old daughter died from a serious prescription error.

“To lose a child is the worst thing that can ever happen to anybody,” Jerry said.

A Pharmacy Board investigation found that during chemotherapy Jerry’s daughter, Emily, was given an overdose of sodium chloride.

Jerry said, “You live with it every minute of every day.”

But NewsChannel5’s review of pharmacy records uncovered something even more startling.

Pharmacist Eric Cropp was later hired by another pharmacy. The On Your Side investigation found he continued to make even more mistakes at his new job.

Pharmacy records show 13 more dispensing errors in just six months — including one that harmed another child.

Cropp’s license was revoked and he now faces reckless homicide charges in court.

Jerry said, “I was shocked and disgusted to hear that he could go down the street and get a new job and that there was no tracking system involved.”

So how can this happen?

The NewsChannel5 investigation found that, in Ohio, even deadly mistakes can be kept secret. There’s no mandatory reporting of pharmacy errors.

NewsChannel5 showed the findings to the State Board of Pharmacy.

“Mandatory reporting of serious errors would get us started on them earlier. I do think some judgment needs to be involved on where that line is drawn as to what is mandatorily reported and what is not,” William Winsley of the Ohio Board of Pharmacy said.

While there currently is no mandatory reporting, NewsChannel5 did find some 200 complaints of pharmacy errors over the last two years.

This report is already generating a big response and there’s going to be action taken. NewsChannel5 will have more on that in part 2 of “Prescription for Trouble.”