Medical Malpractice Suits: Death By Medicine

A recent report has found that Americans are more frightened of dying at the hands of their doctor than they are of a plane crash. The overwhelming majority of those who participated in the survey said that information about malpractice suits and medical errors would be the single most deciding factor in trusting a healthcare provider. These people must have heard that medical errors cause more deaths in the United States every year than car accidents, AIDS, or breast cancer.

In fact, for the airline industry to parallel medical errors in mortality rates a 280-person jet would have to crash every day of the year. This would account for the over 100,000 people who die annually due to complications in medical care, not to mention the nearly 2 million who are maimed and disabled. This malady is called iatrogenic disease, a disease that is a direct result of medical care. What is causing this epidemic? Many agree that the cause is over-treatment. More medicine is administered than necessary, people are hospitalized unnecessarily, and doctors prescribe drugs instead of healthy lifestyle choices. This is a major problem and it shows no signs of stopping.

In the ten year period between 1983 and 1993 the incidence of death by medical error, or iatrogenic disease, jumped 260% overall and 850% among patience receiving outpatient care. These statistics could only be an indication of the true numbers, because medical error is not often recorded on death certificates. Some people blame the increased number of deaths on a greater number of prescriptions, but the number of prescriptions issued has increased less than 40% in 10 years, compared with the 260% increased death rate. Instead, some doctors blame increased usage of anesthesia, especially among those receiving outpatient care.

Medical malpractice insurance rates have been skyrocketing, causing a small crisis among doctors who must be insured in order to practice. They complain of medical malpractice lawsuits going out of control, large cities awarding record settlements, too many people filing claims. Well can you blame people for filing claims? Doctors must be held accountable for their prescriptions, and if a doctor writes you a prescription that hurts you they deserve to be taken to court! This is truly an epidemic, and it must be stopped by holding irresponsible healthcare providers responsible. One in five Americans has experienced medical errors directly or has a family member who has suffered a medical error. If you feel you have suffered unnecessarily at the hands of a doctor, seek legal council and work it out with a lawyer.

If you have more questions, contact a medical error attorney or read about other medical malpractice cases at http://www.hugesettlements.com.

If you use this article, please include these links.

Latest News


BioImagene CEO, Dr. Ajit Singh, Speaks On Enabling Personalized ...
MarketWatch - 2 hours ago
Digital pathology, a key enabler for personalized medicine, will aid clinicians in managing and interpreting data from a whole new set of diagnostic tests ...
Aperio Introduces SecondSlide(TM) Digital Slide Sharing Network MarketWatch
all 16 news articles

Boston Globe

Medicine for the Job Market
New York Times, United States - 12 hours ago
By JONATHAN GRUBER A CENTRAL feature of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign was an aggressive plan to expand health insurance coverage by subsidizing ...
New Report Shows Slower Premium Growth, But Increasing Pressure to ... MarketWatch
Health Corps Harvard International Review
Research database from the US Library of Medicine The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com
Belleville News Democrat - Senior-Spectrum
all 205 news articles

SmartAboutHealth

American College of Surgeons Comments on Institute of Medicine ...
MarketWatch - 19 hours ago
CHICAGO, Dec 03, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The American College of Surgeons (ACS) today recognized the Institute of Medicine (IOM) for its ...
BMC Internal Medicine Residency Program Achieves National ... iBerkshires.com
Report urges more sleep for medical residents Los Angeles Times
Medical Residents Must Sleep After 16 Hours, Experts Urge Washington Post
New York Times - Peoria Journal Star
all 328 news articles

Research and Markets: 2008 Integrative Medicine and Dietary ...
MarketWatch - 2 hours ago
In this 32-page issue, we offer a breakdown of 2007 US Complementary and Alternative Medicine sales data and provides a detailed analysis of new integrative ...

Javno.hr

34 Nigerian Children Dead From Tainted Medicine
Voice of America - Dec 3, 2008
By VOA News Nigerian health officials say they are flying in doses of an antidote for a poisoned teething medicine that has now killed 34 infants. ...
'Toxic' syrup kills Nigerian babies Aljazeera.net
Teething mixture kills more Nigerian babies Monsters and Critics.com
Nigeria infant drug toll hits 34, antidote flown in Reuters South Africa
The Associated Press - NgEX
all 113 news articles

Research database from the US Library of Medicine
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com, OH - 3 hours ago
Search PubMed, Clinicaltrials.gov, the CDC and a dozen other medical sites - all at once. AP MEDICAL VIDEO by Michael O'Malley and Joan Mazzolini/Plain ...

A New Index of Preventive Medicine Companies
Motley Fool - 17 hours ago
The accompanying table [click to enlarge] presents statistics and the top 15 rated companies in the ETF Innovators [ETFI] Preventive Medicine Index. ...

American Academy of Dermatology Issues Position Statement on Vitamin D
MarketWatch - 1 hour ago
The currently recommended adequate intake levels established by the Institute of Medicine may be revised upward due to evolving research on the increasing ...

NIGERIA: Jos displaced grapple with food, water, medicine shortages
IRINnews.org, NY - 3 hours ago
JOS, 4 December 2008 (IRIN) - Water, medicine and food supplies are running low for an estimated 10000 people displaced by violence in Jos, northern Nigeria ...

Discover Magazine

"Rogue" stem cell clinics exploit hope: report
Reuters - 14 hours ago
"The direct-to-consumer portrayal of stem cell medicine is optimistic and unsupported by published evidence," Timothy Caulfield of the University of Alberta ...
Scientists warn of “rogue” online stem cell clinics p2pnet.net
Internet stem-cell clinics 'exploiting' MS and Parkinson's patients Times Online
The International Society for Stem Cell Research Releases New ... MarketWatch
MIT Technology Review - MarketWatch
all 393 news articles

Resources


    Sorry Currently Unavailable