Posted on 01/20/2005 9:00:18 AM PST by Rakkasan1
In the first public disclosure of its kind, Minnesota hospitals acknowledged medical errors that caused 20 deaths and four serious disabilities over a 15-month period, according to a report released Wednesday.
Thirty hospitals across the state reported preventable errors such as bedsores, fatal falls or surgery on the wrong body part or patient. In all, there were 99 cases of preventable errors during the study period from July 1, 2003, to October 6, 2004.
The report, which was required by a new state law, provides a baseline in measuring a problem that so far has lacked reliable comparisons nationally. There is no way to compare Minnesota's results nationally because no state has conducted a similar report.
State health officials hope the data and future reports will reveal systemic weaknesses and lead to reforms that reduce the likelihood and severity of errors.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Make that "Unless the American public...".
My bad.
What you said! I am a nurse and I agree with everything you said. In fact, you nailed it so well, I'm wondering if you work in health care.
These are all very important, especially having a family member being an advocate for you. But, even with all these precautions one rather serious surgery caused major complications that led to one other serious surgery, 25 additional days in the hospital, 25 times under anesthesia for very painful wound care, two months using a walker, 2 months of having to have a sitter to care for me, and six months of sleeping in a hospital bed in my living room and six months of daily visits from a home health nurse.
You can't be too careful. But, most importantly be right with God before you go under the knife. You never know if you will come out alive or not.
"one rather serious surgery caused major complications"
Serious complications are a risk for anyone undergoing "serious surgery". "Complications" are unplanned adverse events; no one needs to have CAUSED them. Was it truly the SURGERY that caused the complication, or was it the serious illness that required the surgery?
If someone receives an antibiotic, there is a risk of a fatal allergic reaction from that drug. Nonetheless, if our child gets a pneumonia, we DEMAND an antibiotic; we make the correct calculation that the risk of untreated pneumonia outweighs the risk of serious adverse events from the antibiotic. Yet if a fatal allergic reaction occurs, that would be considered a "medical error".
People having major surgery get unplanned adverse events happen to them, because this is reality. People form adhesions because people form adhesions; if you get a post operative bowel obstruction from adhesions, blame your body, not the doctor.
By this estimate, 20 deaths would be about one in 25,000, and that includes a certain proportion of infected bedsores, hospital-acquired pneumonias, and demented falling sleepwalkers that are not really the fault of any individual doctor's or nurse's error.
Those sound like pretty good odds to me, especially when you consider that the alternative to hospital treatment for tens of thousands of those patients would be swift and certain death.
I'm sure there were many more than 20 medical malpractice suits filed, claiming death at the hands of incompetent doctors. Let us hope that the filthy greedy plaintiff's-lawyer scumbags are shooting themselves in the foot with this demonstration of just how safe and effective the medical system really is.
-ccm
There was no illness that required the surgery. It was elective as a preventative measure. I believe that my doctor should have refused to do the procedure for reasons that I won't go into here. I later found out that the senior partner of that practice had advised my doctor not to do the surgery; but, he did it anyway. Any concerns that I raised were brushed aside as "not a problem". Two years later I am not bitter and I do not regret having the surgery. However, I will be much more afraid of any necessary surgeries in the future.
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