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Obviously, they can do harm and when a doctor takes the Hippocratic Oath one of the things he pledges to do is "to first do no harm" to patients.
My experience is most physicians are reluctant to do surgery. The first general surgeon I spoke to about doing acid reflux surgery (which I dearly needed) was extremely reluctant to do it. He willingly shared a host of negative information with me about the general efficacy of the procedure and possible complications.
I have sat in doctor's offices while they carefully went over an Informed Consent form for a medical procedure. Seldom do I recall them in a hurry when they did this. I never felt pressured to sign a consent. The pressure I felt was from a medical condition that needed to be fixed because of the discomfort that I was experiencing.
Medical malpractice does exist and it is a significant problem. However, my personal experience as a personal injury attorney tells me that the number of wrongful deaths from malpractice is not anywhere near 250,000 a year. Approximately 40,000 people die per year in car accidents and I''m always taking on new car wreck cases. I am seldom contacted about medical malpractice cases and I have only been contacted a handful of times over a 34 year legal career about a death that result from alleged malpractice. I don't want to give out a lot of details. I will tell you that the way I am positioned in the community in which I practice that if these cases occurred six times as often as deaths from car wrecks, I would be getting flooded with calls.
Malpractice is a problem. It is not claiming 250,000 lives in the USA per year and it is not the catastrophe that you make it out to be.
I don't make anything out to be. I just posted some links. I've forgotten what I posted as the numbers are all over the place anyway. Who knows any truths and I should NOT care.
I ended up with a significant amount of disability from a hip replacement in 2010 and it's been downhill since 2010. I do ALL in my power to NOT get on any operating table NOW.
I don't make anything out to be. I just posted some links. I've forgotten what I posted as the numbers are all over the place anyway. Who knows any truths and I should NOT care.
I ended up with a significant amount of disability from a hip replacement in 2010 and it's been downhill since 2010. I do ALL in my power to NOT get on any operating table NOW.
If you did not CARE, why did you start the thread?
The truth is the numbers are the result of poor methods that exaggerate the magnitude of the problem. If they were true, every third person you know who died in a hospital would have bee the victim of a "mistake." It is just not possible. Hospitals where that was happening would be shut down, and hospitals do track errors and try to prevent them.
We all understand your disappointment and frustration with your joint issues, but you have provided no evidence that your problems are due to medical mistakes.
I don't make anything out to be. I just posted some links. I've forgotten what I posted as the numbers are all over the place anyway. Who knows any truths and I should NOT care.
I ended up with a significant amount of disability from a hip replacement in 2010 and it's been downhill since 2010. I do ALL in my power to NOT get on any operating table NOW.
Just a thought. Doctors and others who work in the medical field get sick too. Their family members need medical care as often as the rest of the general population does. This is another reason that I doubt you see an abundance of unnecessary surgery or prescription of unduly dangerous drugs. I don't believe there is one standard of care for people who work in the medical profession and another for the general public
Sure there are legitimate cases of medical malpractice. The system has a mechanism for dealing with those. Is American health care rife with substandard care? No.
Of course, those in the medical field get sick, have surgeries, etc etc etc, get better and some don't. We'll NEVER know exacts on any of this but I don't lay awake worrying about it all. I work to NOT be a statistic.
I'd like to see the American system with teams of doctors working together with their allopathic drugs and alternatives to what I feel would be the best outcomes. But that is asking too much of conventional medicine. MOST are against alternative healing.
"There are five major flaws with the Makary/Daniel paper:
1. Improper definition,
2. Data inconsistency and tabulation of 'medical errors,'
3. Extrapolation error,
4. Misinformation regarding death certificates, and
5. Inappropriate recommendations for further research."
"The widely publicized BMJ article claiming that medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. is badly flawed and should be retracted."
"Whenever you see an estimate of how many deaths are 'deaths by medicine,' it’s very helpful to compare that estimate with what we know to assess its plausibility. As I mentioned above, According to the CDC, of the 2.6 million deaths that occur every year in the U.S., 715,000 occur in hospitals, which means that, if Makary’s estimates are correct, 35% of all hospital deaths are due to medical errors. But the plausibility of Makary’s estimate is worse than that. Remember that the upper estimate used by Makary and Daniels is 400,000 inpatient deaths due to medical error. That’s 56%—yes, 56%—of all inpatient deaths? Seriously? It’s just not anywhere near plausible that one-third to over one-half of all inpatient deaths in the US are due to medical error. It just isn’t."
The criticism of Makary and Daniels extends outside the US:
"A fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Royal College of Physicians, Mary Dixon-Woods is Director of THIS Institute and RAND Professor of Health Services Research in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow at Homerton College. She is a Wellcome Trust Investigator and an NIHR Senior Investigator."
"Scientist, Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Veterans & Community Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute
Director, Centre for Quality Improvement & Patient Safety, University of Toronto
Vice-chair, quality and innovation, department of medicine, U of T
Full professor, department of medicine, U of T
Adjunct faculty, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, U of T
Staff physician, general internal medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Editor-in-chief, British Medical Journal Quality & Safety"
"The response authors said they could agree with the analysis authors on one point: 'They say that 'sound scientific methods, beginning with an assessment of the problem, are critical to approaching any health threat to patients",' the researchers said. 'Sadly, their paper does not exemplify such sound science.'"
When criticism comes from scientists with special expertise in patient safety, who are not even in the US, perhaps Makary's "study" should not be taken seriously.
A friend had a doula with 20 y experience at her side during a hospital birth. The doula identified FIVE MISTAKES that the medical staff made.
FIVE.
So, yes, I believe the numbers. Just ask anyone who has ever been in the hospital. Mistakes all over the place. I would guess that the patients who believe doctor knows best have no clue regarding all the mistakes that are made.
And I realize that you have a very closed mind and will never admit that doctors make mistakes, ever. Because well, they are doctors!!!! They are PERFECT.
A friend had a doula with 20 y experience at her side during a hospital birth. The doula identified FIVE MISTAKES that the medical staff made.
FIVE.
So, yes, I believe the numbers. Just ask anyone who has ever been in the hospital. Mistakes all over the place. I would guess that the patients who believe doctor knows best have no clue regarding all the mistakes that are made.
And I realize that you have a very closed mind and will never admit that doctors make mistakes, ever. Because well, they are doctors!!!! They are PERFECT.
What mistakes did the doula identify? Since the thread is about deaths, did the patient die?
I take it you never make mistakes? Where have I claimed doctors are perfect? Cite the post, please. I note that when you make accusations about what I believe and I ask you to show where I said what you claim I did you never answer, so I do not expect a reply this time, either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaminhealth
Oh good grief you're posting about Offit again.
Yeah.
Dr. Offit is a real thorn in the side for alt med, isn't he?
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