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Both of you could be right. It depends on how you define "leading cause of death" and "medical mistake".
For instance, let's say I am diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and they give me chemo. But the chemo order is for the wrong chemo compound, which is ineffective against my cancer and 3 months later I am dead. Was it from the cancer or was it from the wrong chemo?
Had my thyroid removed; doctor nicked one of my vocal cords which became paralyzed. My voice sounds very gravely where it used to be very nice. The paralyzed vocal cord led to something called Vocal Cord Dysfunction which sometimes causes me not to be able to breathe. The first time I had to go to the ER I was diagnosed with asthma and bronchitis. Even though I have been to the ER four times with this, including once in an ambulance, I am never treated properly. I can't sue the surgeon because it's on the list of "possible complications".
It is hard to say if it was a mistake, or just a common possible consequence of any surgery. DH had a hip replacement. The site of the wond became infected and required a second surgery. Fast forward to a year later, when the sight developed an infection again. He was on IV antibiotics for 6 weeks.
Possible screwup? Yes, but by whom? The ortho doctors said he could have been nicked during a colonoscopy a few months after the hip replacement. My DH, though, has a history of never healing from surgery without some kind of setback.
Yes; had a local GP who misdiagnosed Cushing's Disease as my being "fat" for 6 years, even though I had every one of the associated symptoms of the disease. I even asked him point-blank one time if I had Cushing's and he just reiterated that I was fat. Fortunately I finally went to another doctor who, upon my walking into his office and telling him I thought I had Cushing's, told me I looked like a textbook case. It turned out he (and I) was right, and he referred me to Johns-Hopkins for my subsequent brain surgery.
Two years ago my husband was 73. He went into the hospital to have half his thyroid removed. In recovery (we think) he wasn't being watched and stood up, fell down and broke his hip. He was so drugged up he doesn't remember any of it.
After months of physical therapy in our home he was walking pretty fast again, with a limp, and I was becoming optimistic. Then one night he took a sleeping pill that was just prescribed and a pain pill the same GP prescribed, got up at 2am and fell down again, fracturing a neighboring bone.
It has changed our lives. He can't walk far, climb a ladder , stand up for long, walk with confidence, drive safely or dozens of other things healthy people can do. Now I am a sort of caregiver and depressed. He seems pretty happy, doing nothing but being served my good cooking in his recliner and napping 3 or 4 times a day. But he also is diabetic. He may have given up . He won't talk about it so I don't really know .
Sort of. I had bronchitis - seems to be a simple diagnosis. I had to go to 3 doctors before they got it right. I want home with asthma meds, allergy meds.... nothing was working. Finally! A doctor who wasn't out to make a buck on drugs. Unnecessary delay.
I had the exact thing happen to me!
When I was pregnant with my daughter the doctor told me she would have spina bifada or be born with no brain. She was perfectly healthy.
I have never been, but I did take a prescribed medicine that was later removed from the market due to adverse side affects. It was called "Propulsid" used to treat severe heart burn.I was not on it very long, so it didn't affect me.
Remember that doctors "bury their mistakes" figuratively and literally. Never be afraid to ask questions.
I was diagnosed with an incurable disease as a teenager and given horrible meds that I was to take "for the rest of my life" only to find out several years later that the symptom that was diagnosed as a disease was a side effect from another medication I was being given at the time.
Also during surgery my bladder was nicked and it has never worked properly since then.
I had a reaction to a common antibiotic (which has since been re-reviewed by the FDA and had a lot of additional warnings issued to medical professionals, including warnings that must be read to the patient by the pharmacist before dispensing the drug). This supposedly safe drug (Cipro) destroyed both my Achilles tendons, resulting in several years of disability, and surgery to rebuild them. Very, very frustrating.
But that wasn't really a medical mistake - it was just a doctor using a bazooka to kill a hypothetical mouse. Cipro and that family of drugs was developed to fight very serious infections - literally anthrax and ebola. But until this latest round of precautions by the FDA, many doctors were prescribing these very powerful (and potent) drugs for minor infections, because, well, because by golly they WORKED - but it was really overkill.
I had a reaction to a common antibiotic (which has since been re-reviewed by the FDA and had a lot of additional warnings issued to medical professionals, including warnings that must be read to the patient by the pharmacist before dispensing the drug). This supposedly safe drug (Cipro) destroyed both my Achilles tendons, resulting in several years of disability, and surgery to rebuild them. Very, very frustrating.
But that wasn't really a medical mistake - it was just a doctor using a bazooka to kill a hypothetical mouse. Cipro and that family of drugs was developed to fight very serious infections - literally anthrax and ebola. But until this latest round of precautions by the FDA, many doctors were prescribing these very powerful (and potent) drugs for minor infections, because, well, because by golly they WORKED - but it was really overkill.
I also had issues from Cipro, but nothing as bad as yours. I had severe sinus infections on and off for a year. Cipro was prescribed and during the first or second week after taking it, I was doing my usual morning leg and hip stretches and something popped behind my knee - I tore a tendon. Since then I feel my tendons aren't the same - all vague symptoms, but annoying.
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