BOSTON (WHDH) - Gov. Charlie Baker added his signature to Laura’s Law Friday in honor of a woman who died from an asthma attack while searching for the emergency room at a Somerville hospital back in 2016.
On the last night of the legislative session, the new law was unanimously passed.
“Nobody who heard the story said no,” Senator Patrica Jehlen said.
Nearly four years ago, 34-year-old Laura Levis collapsed just steps away from the emergency room and was found unresponsive on a bench. So close to help.
“Everyone saw how good and pure a law this is … how essential it is and how extremely important it was to honor the life of a young, beautiful woman who died so tragically and so unnecessarily,” her husband Peter DeMarco said.
Since her death, DeMarco has worked to make hospital access safer by creating legislation that mandates signage, lighting, and panic buttons.
“Folks try to find a way to create something good out of something awful,” Baker said of the new law.
DeMarco said he grieves for his late wife every day. For the woman who loved to sleep late, check out new restaurants, go to the movies, and work out.
“I think she would say ‘I’m glad I didn’t die for no reason. I’m glad that through my death other people’s lives will one day be saved,” he said.
He said what happened to Levis could have happened to anyone.
Hospitals will get between six months and a year to put the new rules in place once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
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