Malpractice:medical errors kill 195,000 Americans each year.

[dave502d]

A new study has revealed startling statistics about the number of people killed each year in U.S. hospitals. That number is now estimated to be 195,000 people, or almost twice as many as were estimated in a 1998 report on the same subject. To put this in perspective, this is equivalent to almost fifty 9/11 attacks each year in terms of the number of fatalities caused. This is a health care crisis -- people are being killed by preventable hospital errors and neglect. Unfortunately, it's also the norm in our modern medical system.

http://www.newstarget.com/001543.html

[greenman3610]

1. important to note

that about 100,000 people a year are killed by
their CORRECTLY prescibed and dosed medications.

[BamaLefty]

2. That Is A Low #

Many more go unnoticed.

[jojo54]

3. My personal experience was almost 15 years ago

and it's still happening today. A friend of ours was in the hospital for broken ribs and a punctured lung. Fortunately, he asked questions of the nurse that was bringing him medicine. She was going to give him something he was highly allergic to and it was on the chart.

The nurses and doctor's do work long hours and something has to be done.

[TalkingDog]

4. old but,sadly, underreported news....

From: Kohn L, ed, Corrigan J, ed, Donaldson M, ed. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System.

Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1999

"And the November 30 shocking report from the Institute of Medicine showed medical mistakes are a common and potentially life-threatening risk. If medical mistakes counted among the leading causes of death in America, they would be eighth.

Surgical gaffes like amputating the wrong foot or a deadly chemotherapy overdose make headlines. But patients may never hear of the more subtle errors, like a delay in diagnosis or testing that costs precious time to fight off disease. Medical mistakes costing lives. Medical mistakes are a stunningly huge problem, says a new report by the Institute of Medicine. It quoted studies estimating that at least 44,000 and perhaps as many as 98,000 hospitalized Americans die every year from errors. To put that into sharper and more alarming perspective, even the lower figure of 44,000 deaths exceeds the number of people who die each year either on the highways, of breast cancer or of AIDS."