Doctors Kill More People Than Guns Do

NewsMax.com ^ | 12/29/04 | Nathan Tabor

[B4Ranch]

Only doctors and lawyers have practices. You don't object to being practiced on, do you?

[US admirer]

Wonder what the accidental death percentage per stunt team, bomb disposal personnel, fighter pilot, Alaskan crab boat captain etc is?

Dealing with sick people is inherently dangerous. The performance of medical care delivery carries risk.

How many deaths would occur without the presence or participation of imperfect doctors, who make fatal mistakes, in the population at risk for iatrogenic injury/fatalities?

Sorry to post and run but I am on my way out of the office and wanted to express a alternate viewpoint for contemplation.

[TheRatHunter]

Read this back when GOPfun.com was regularly maintained. Always a fun stat to use against the gun control nuts!

[shibumi]

"Doctors: (A) There are 700,000 physicians in the U.S. (B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians total 120,000 per year. (C) Accidental death percentage per physician is 0.171."

These figures do not take into account the deaths that are caused by doctors ON PURPOSE, in the name of "Woman's right to choose."

[Jim Noble]

More people die in the Cleveland Clinic than the Walk-in clinic

The ones in the Cleveland Clinic are sicker.

If you have a disease that is 100% fatal, and you get a treatment that is 90% effective but has a 10% complication rate, and you die of a complication, were you "killed by the doctor"?

[rbg81]

Do Doctors kill more people than cigarettes? Maybe we should outlaw Doctors (especially in the inner city)? Or at least levy hefty tax on people stupid enough to use Doctors. Its for their own good anyway, as using a Doctor has been shown to precede death. For good measure, hospitals should be sued for "distributing" Doctors.

I could go on and on.......

[Azure Dreams]

My wife had a cousin who was ran over by a Doctor in front of the hospital.....I'M SERIOUS !!

[kattracks]

I believe the author wrote this with tongue firmly placed in cheek. He was trying to make a point, imo, not knock doctors in general.

[Azure Dreams]

**I believe the author wrote this with tongue firmly placed in cheek. He was trying to make a point, imo, not knock doctors in general.**

Personally, I have more confidence in faith healing, chiropractors,shamans, medicine men and witch doctors ;)

[GreenHornet]

What about the dreaded doctors with guns? I shudder to think of the possiblities. ;)

I think we need stricter laws that will make it more difficult to see a doctor at a gun show.

[verity]

Can you imagine a doctor reporting to the OR with a Desert Eagle on his hip?

[Arizona]

Doctors: (A) There are 700,000 physicians in the U.S. (B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians total 120,000 per year. (C) Accidental death percentage per physician is 0.171.

This doesn't even include the "wrong leg taken off" type incidents which don't kill, but maim.

Thanks for posting the article.

az

[Bushforlife]

You have to understand, that Doctors in general make a good living and therefore are among the "privileged". For that reason it certainly is justified to believe any made up derogatory statistics about them.

[Shisan]

Please note, that is why they call it the "Walk-in"clinic and not the "Walk-out" clinic. No guarantees.

[Bushforlife]

If you rupture an abdominal aortic aneurysm outside the hospital, but make it to the hospital alive, the survival rate is less than 50%, due to the nature of the disease. So the surgeons who take these very ill patients to the operating room immediately save 50% of them. That's the rational viewpoint.

On the other hand, we have the irrational, conventional wisdom, emotionally charged sensationalist viewpoint: those surgeons kill half of those patients.

As a practicing physician for 25 years, I truly look forward to retirement. Our society's prevailing victim mentality that physicians are responsible for any bad medical outcome has led me to the point where I actually actively discourage any young person who wishes to practice medicine, including my own children. For those of you who subscribe to the "hate the privileged doctor class warfare mentality", I have this advice: Go Treat Yourselves.

[Brad’s Gramma]

BTTT!!!

[George Smiley]

...although they could turn this around into an anti-tort reform message...

Only if you make the mistaken assumption that every one of those deaths is due to error or negligence on the part of the physician.

Sheer statistical probability dictates that some percentage of a physician's patient base will die during any given year.

Even if that physician is a dermatologist.

: ^ )

[Bob J]

Your favorite opponent...

[Buzwardo]

Gun ping

[festus]

They can have my doctor when they pry him from my cold dead hands .....

nah just doesn't sound right.......