re: Are medical errors really the third leading cause of death in this country?

A lot of what is called 'error' really is something else, and a lot of actual errors do not lead to a patients demise but are statistically counted (IE a patient given a wrong med during a hospitalization who dies during that stay but not directly from the error). Many 'errors' are things like hospital acquired infections, which are simply not entirely preventable. Doesn't mean there shouldn't be an aggressive attempt ( there clearly should be), but if you need a ventilator for a long time you may well get pneumonia anyway. Is it an 'error'? Or is it just that whatever made you sick enough to need the vent initially just eventually won?

Also, the Monday morning QB issue is real. Many, many things of varying severity look alike initially, and the 'common things are common and rare things are rare' adage plays a role. When you already know the answer, you can look back at the trail of evidence and feel like it is idiotic that the diagnosis was missed. That said, the trail leading to a much more common problem may be exactly the same.

Having recently had a parent who was gravely ill, I can attest that the level of care in most hospitals is quite bad. The background if that my father is 70 years old and is a Type I diabetic. He has had a relatively healthy life but, it finally caught up with him. He got a would on his foot that was not properly diagnosed by his physician which was indeed a Staph Infection. He ended up in the hospital at Shands at the University of Florida. They were absolutely horrible in terms of the quality of care. They were incapable of doing anything other than what protocol called for in terms of managing his diabetes. They could not comprehend that the sliding scale does not work well with him. At one point, they allowed his sugar to rach 800.

Yes, it was 800 while in the hospital. It fried his brian as a result of that incident. He nearly died several times and was comatose for a few days.

Shands was a filthy hospital. While there his Staph infection turned into MRSA which resulted in an amputation of his foot at the calf. He has profound brain damage as well.

He lived through the ordeal and is basically like a child in his decision making now. He requires constant care and will never have any quality of life for whatever time he has remaining.

His malpractice involves improper diagnosis/testing because his original doctor did not order a culture and place him on antibiotics. He was not properly referred to a wound care clinic in a timely basis.

Improper care by diabetes Doctors. I stood face to face with the Doctor and told her that what she was doing was going to kill him. She said that she is following the sliding scale and would not deviate from it.

Filthy conditions. MRSA infection as result of exposure while in that damned filthy hospital.

Litigation has begun on his case but, that will never make him whole again. Additionally, my Mother's life is a nightmare because now, she has to nurse my father 24/7. That is all she does is provide care for him. Not much of a life for her.

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Shoulda told you that it's not medically necessary and you'd be hurting your son

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The pediatric urologist actually recommended it once I saw him. Asked what he thought in his professional opinion, and he said he felt circumcisions done before 2 months of age are beneficial for both health and well being.


I guess I should have asked the message board poster first though

You tell us.. frick! You are the one who will be starting your residency in July. I wouldn't be surprised if it's up there. Part of the reason is advancement in medicine, but people do not stay nearly as long in a hospital, after any type of surgery today, as they did.. 25 years ago. I remember reading something awhile back about how people are likely to heal faster at home opposed to staying in the hospital. Plus, like anything else you have human error. I would have no clue as to how many people go to the hospital to receive treatment in the US, every year, but even if 2 or 3% of that number die due to medical error.. I can only assume it would be a relatively high number.

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No. You use your clinical judgement to allocate the resources we have. When this is the case, statistically, bad outcomes will always happen. Please direct me to the moment that anyone has claimed MDs to be perfect, tests to be 100% accurate, etc.

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Thats what I was saying when I said "human error". Human error is something that can not be prevented and when I say "human error" I mean it in general (drs, nurses, the "sick" people and the sick people). Honestly, I couldn't imagine working in an ER.

I know most people don't think about it in depth, but I always think its funny when someone goes to the ER and complains about the dr or nurse being rude. The one time I had to go to the ER (it was a gall bladder, but it hurt like hell) the last thing I cared about was whether or not the dr & nurses were nice, they could have been rude as hell, as long as they knew what they were doing.

When I went to the ER, I remember the nurses having to deal with some guy who evidently was a regular. The nurse was sort of venting to me about how the guy goes in at least once a month and they have to do the same thing. Get an ambulance to take him somewhere else, but in the meantime he is there and they have to spend time dealing with it. I hate hospitals so I don't understand people who go to the ER because they sneezed a few more times than they normally do, but I think most people assume hospitals, drs, nurses, etc work like a machine.

I agree with you. His Duabetes finally caught up to him which resulted in his amputation. His primary care Doc should have referred him to wound care and certainly should have cultured it to determine what antibiotic to use. He didn't. He was gravely ill when he was finally hospitalized. It was already too late.

I had always heard great things about Shands hospital. It was a madhouse from day one. There was absolutely no coordination of patient care. Incompetent physicians at every turn.

I agree that their evidence based practices policies had a lot to do with it.

My grandmother died because of surgeon error during a procedure. I think it's far more common than anyone thinks!

Also, consider all of the extreme measures we are taking to keep REALLY REALLY sick people alive longer. People that would have died years earlier on the past century are on dialysis for years, open heart surgery, 23 week old babies on ventilators and feeding tubes for months in the hospital. People who are really really sick and very complicated are staying alive longer most of the time for long periods in the hospital on 20+ medications with unknown interactions.

And you are surprised that death from disease is going down and death from healthcare mistakes is going up?

Some of yall really need to get a grip. You have never experienced what is required to care for a really sick, complicated patient. I'm not saying there aren't blatant mistakes and malpractice. There certainly are. But a majority of this data is more than likely misrepresented.

So are you saying that this is an error or malpractice?

I mean I know I'm going to sound like the bad guy here but do you realize that a very rare form of cancer caused him to have an enlarged spleen, which can cause shoulder pain, but doesn't necessarily mean he is actively rupturing his spleen or about to rupture it.

How could he have know that his spleen would rupture in the middle of the night. Even if he went to the ED there would be no way of knowing if or when his spleen would rupture.

I'm really sorry to hear what happened to your dad. It's truly tragic, but it can be hard to disconnect the emotional aspect from the raw facts and realize that some circumstances are unpredictable. It doesn't mean that there was negligence involved, doctors are stupid, etc.