3rd highest killer in US

[clearconscience]

http://m.newser.com/story/224558/am...tm_medium=foxnews&utm_campaign=rss_health_syn


Study by johns hopkins finds the 3rd biggest killer in the US is medical errors

And guns of course isn't 1st or 2nd.

"No. 3 cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. Combine all annual deaths from guns, suicide, and car accidents, double them, and that still wouldn't add up to the 251,454 people the Johns Hopkins researchers estimate fall victim to medical errors each year."

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[Tomoko]

Of course it's not. It's all about control. It's not about guns.

 

[Martini_Up]

I'm glad I already have a good stock of pre-ban doctors.

 

[bolus]

the BMJ article just is an estimate based on extrapolated data.

Plus if you use the criteria of preventable medical error you are including stuff like complications of surgery. If you go looking for a surgeon who has a 100% complication free career you wont find one.

If a patient goes in for surgery. contracts a pneumonia in the hospital and dies that is considered a medical error. If the goal is 0% infection rate you wont ever achieve it. You can certainly work on getting better. But these errors are not necessary incompetence. Many are pure chance.

I had a medical error in residency. I had an elderly patient dying of inoperable cancer. He still wanted to be treated aggressively though there was no chance of cure are we were only trying to buy time. I did a central line (large IV in the neck where the catheter goes down to the heart) because he lost all IV access. I punctured his lung accidentally during the procedure and by the time I went down to look at the xray and get back to the floor (15 minutes) he died from a collapsed lung.

The family actually was thankful because they said he just looked like he fell asleep and his suffering was over. Even though he probably had less than a week to live, I caused a medical error that caused a death. I used the correct technique and I had supervision by a superior who said I did nothing wrong. but it still ended in death.

20 years later I still remember that guy and though part of me feels ok about ending his suffering I also know I took a week or so away from his life

 

[Martini_Up]

guns and doctors are very similar: it's better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.

 

[clearconscience]

Bolus, I posted this to show the absurdity of trying to control guns and the politicians and media that make guns out to be the one and only reason people are killed in America.

I hope you didn't take this as a knock on you or your profession. Crap happens. Sometimes big crap happens. It's no one's fault. It's life. The only guarantee we have in life is that it was one day end. For many it's too soon.

 

[Joe13]

the BMJ article just is an estimate based on extrapolated data.

Plus if you use the criteria of preventable medical error you are including stuff like complications of surgery. If you go looking for a surgeon who has a 100% complication free career you wont find one.

If a patient goes in for surgery. contracts a pneumonia in the hospital and dies that is considered a medical error. If the goal is 0% infection rate you wont ever achieve it. You can certainly work on getting better. But these errors are not necessary incompetence. Many are pure chance.

I had a medical error in residency. I had an elderly patient dying of inoperable cancer. He still wanted to be treated aggressively though there was no chance of cure are we were only trying to buy time. I did a central line (large IV in the neck where the catheter goes down to the heart) because he lost all IV access. I punctured his lung accidentally during the procedure and by the time I went down to look at the xray and get back to the floor (15 minutes) he died from a collapsed lung.

The family actually was thankful because they said he just looked like he fell asleep and his suffering was over. Even though he probably had less than a week to live, I caused a medical error that caused a death. I used the correct technique and I had supervision by a superior who said I did nothing wrong. but it still ended in death.

20 years later I still remember that guy and though part of me feels ok about ending his suffering I also know I took a week or so away from his life

Doctors are like any other profession, there are a few bad eggs and then there is stuff that just can't be foreseen or fixed.

I just wish the insurance company's didn't dictate which doctors are ok to see and which are not.

While an admirable and prestigious carrier, Doctors are still just doing the best they can with the tools and rules that they are given, as are we all.


Rock on @bolus

 

[Tomoko]

I have a MULTITUDE of diseases. I had Brights Disease (inflammation of the kidneys) The chances after this surgery is that it could come back due to an unknown genetic deformation that notifies the immune system to mistakenly attack said organs. Much like Crohn's disease how it can inflame and affect anything from your A-hole to your mouth. Even your eyesight, and other organs that use your intestines...I.E. Kidneys, Liver, etc.

 

[Mikej]

Rock on @bolus

Yes.

 

[Tomoko]

I have a greater chance of dying before anyone on this forum. Mark my words. If I don't get blood transfusions every 6-9 months, that can mean life or death. It's called Moschcowitz Syndrome. and I have Osteomyelitis. It's a bone condition that the marrow and bone become inflammation causing a very painful never-ending agony that causes tiny fractures that are beyond anyone's comprehension. Doctors don't believe i'll live to see 50. Which is fine by me. I'd hate to be old AND diseased! I'm okay with that.

 

[2A2Dend]

@Tomoko
If the image is in-fact you as you display as your member photo, you are a very strong willed individual, an very becoming just the same.
I admire your acceptance of forth comings, as life brings upon us.

I wish you speed in your journey, to heal.
You are very courageous.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Tomoko, Never give up hope! Never quit on your self, you are strong, and you can still fight! Get mean, grit your teeth, tell your body that YOU are in charge and YOU are not going to be Beaten!!! And for those times when you feel the need, You have the power of prayer in your corner, USE IT!!!

 

[PaulB47]

If a patient goes in for surgery. contracts a pneumonia in the hospital and dies that is considered a medical error. If the goal is 0% infection rate you wont ever achieve it. You can certainly work on getting better. But these errors are not necessary incompetence. Many are pure chance.

That's true, but it doesn't change the fact that hospitals are fairly dangerous places to be. The gun prohibitionists would not cut gun owners any slack for factors beyond our control; why should we? Perhaps the most prominent contingent of the gun prohibitionist movement (other than politicians) is the medical profession.

 

[clearconscience]

Maybe that's why doctors are now asking about firearms in the house! They are buying on the gun control crowd with info in trade for looking the other way on their murderous ways!

 

[Tomoko]

I would absolutely hate for anyone to live with what I got. God forbid, and I really mean that. I'm so stubborn and the relationship I have with God is like no other. When you have an NDE that's a gift. God told me the second time we met. This time Jesus did not have to explain much to me as i've been through the process before. But it was a little different this time. This time, he knows that I know he's the real deal. The Seven Trumpets are ever closer than they had been. The world stage is in a precarious situation. Think about this. Japan is no longer a pacifist nation. This should tell people something. The last time we were strapped was in WWII. This not only doesn't sit well with Japanese, but Americans take note. Japan is sending a clear message and they're even telling their allies, the US "We're gonna do what we damn well please and you will not get in our way." My older brother is in the (Sorry I forgot to add this) Maritime Navy so I can attest to this. Sorry for the novel and going off-topic!

 

[bolus]

I hope you didn't take this as a knock on you or your profession.

Not at all. I just sometimes people see these statistics and think they are just because of rampant incompetence in the medical field.

Just like some medical studies on gun violence discuss kids killed by firearms and completely forget to mention that its primarily from gang violence in minority communities. Just much more than the headlines say.

 

[Nocaster]

Not to discount the validity of the study, but I see a parallel to "gun violence research". It's almost as if there was a push to, uh, promote central control of the medical industry.

Nah, nevermind. That's crazy talk.

 

[Joe13]

I would absolutely hate for anyone to live with what I got. God forbid, and I really mean that. I'm so stubborn and the relationship I have with God is like no other. When you have an NDE that's a gift. God told me the second time we met. This time Jesus did not have to explain much to me as i've been through the process before. But it was a little different this time. This time, he knows that I know he's the real deal. The Seven Trumpets are ever closer than they had been. The world stage is in a precarious situation. Think about this. Japan is no longer a pacifist nation. This should tell people something. The last time we were strapped was in WWII. This not only doesn't sit well with Japanese, but Americans take note. Japan is sending a clear message and they're even telling their allies, the US "We're gonna do what we damn well please and you will not get in our way." My older brother is in the (Sorry I forgot to add this) Maritime Navy so I can attest to this. Sorry for the novel and going off-topic!

Not a lot of Christen Japanese so that's different - I grew up with more Buddhist ideals living over there.

Japan doesn't have nearly enough military to cause us much concern IMO, but I could be wrong too. Last time things popped off we ended it with a couple of tiny nukes. Now we have the tech to wipe the entire county off the map without much hassle. Not that I would ever want that - I like the Japanese.



I think civil war is a bigger possibility. Or China getting too big for it's britches. That's just me.

 

[bolus]

Perhaps the most prominent contingent of the gun prohibitionist movement (other than politicians) is the medical profession.

I honestly dont see that. In the last 20 years in medicine, I've never had even one discussion of gun control with a colleague. I had one lecture in my surgery clerkship about gun shot wounds but that was it.

There are national groups like the pediatric groups that seem to push the message into the media, but from my point of view on the front line no one ever talks about guns. There are no conferences on gun control, no phone calls from politicians on gun control, no work from the hospital administrators on gun control, no internal campaigns on gun control, no emails or letters from the CDC on gun control. Literally nothing from my point of view to drum up any support of anything related to gun control.

well, except that half my partners and staff are gun owners and we trade stories.

 

[Ura-Ki]

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. China is really feelin good about there strength and abilities and is gettin frisky with its neighbors. We Americans took away much of Japans strength after WW2 in that they could only have a defensive force to maintain sovereignty. That has now ended and Japan feels a very real sense of threat from its neighbors. Th U.S. needs to back way off and let them do what they feel they must, and in fact, we should be helping them build up to insure that one of our allies in that region has the tools needed to fight back!