Door problems of the 1998 Ford E-350

I recently had a problem and still have with the passenger side rear door of not being able to open it. I got out of the my Ford van and went around to the side door to open it up to get my dogs out of it. I could not open the side door, I thought the doors had somehow got locked and I was panicing. It was very hot and I knew I had to get my dogs out fast. I was hunting for something to break the window out with but had no luck finding anything. After about 20 or so minutes I finally noticed that the front door locks were in the up position indicating that the doors were not locked. I was able to open the front door saving me from having too break out the glass and then I was able to get into the van and open the rear door. I love my dogs but what if this had been a child. And couldn't open the doors in time. Luckly I discovered that the front doors were not locked and that it was a malfunction of the back door making it impossible to open that door. The results could have been distrastrous and not to mention the cost of repairing the window had I been able to break it, things turned out well thank goodness but if it should happen to someone else the results could be very different. This is Sunday and I now have to get my van to a Ford dealer to fix the rear door so I can open it up as I still can't open it up from the outside. . I think the is a serious safety problem that should be addressed.