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Put the
following causes of death in descending order:
a. Traffic Fatalities
b. Heart Disease
c. Cancer
d. Medical Error
The correct answer is:
b, c, d, a.
According to the July 26 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical
Association, the third leading cause of death in the US is medical error, behind
heart disease and cancer. Each
year, 225,000 people are killed due to preventable mistakes in the following
categories:
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12,000
deaths/year from unnecessary surgery |
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7,000
deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals
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20,000
deaths/year from other errors in hospitals.
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80,000
deaths/year from hospital-acquired infections. |
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106,000
deaths/year from non-error adverse effects of medications.** |
**Other
reports suggest that these figures underestimate the problem, as an earlier
Institute of Medicine study reported the numbers range from 230,000 to 284,000.
I was shocked and greatly disturbed by these figures. The number is so great; it
is difficult to put into context. Consider how much the deaths of the 118
Russian Naval Officers have touched us as well as the young doctor and her baby
in Toronto who died after jumping in front of the subway train. This totals 120
people.
These stories were on the front page of every major newspaper in Canada, but not
the JAMA article! Consider the TWA
Flight 800 report that was just released on the cause of the crash that killed
every person on board. Let's say that on an average jumbo jet, there are 200
passengers (to make the math easy). 225,000 divided by 200 equals 1125 jumbo jet
crashes every year, killing all on board. That's 3 jumbo jet crashes EVERY
SINGLE DAY!
This is why we advocate a healthy lifestyle. The more responsibility that we all
take for our own health, the less likely that we will become statistics. You
know how adamantly opposed we are to drug use of any kind. If 106,000 people are
dying from drug reactions alone, it begs the question: If you give a healthy
person drugs, what would happen? They'd get sick.
Therefore, why give drugs to sick people when the drugs could kill them with
high probability? Drugs as common as over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatories
such as ibuprofen and aspirin are dangerous. There is one death for every 1,200
patients taking this class of medications for at least two months. Does your
friend or loved one taking aspirin daily to "prevent" heart attacks
know this? I hope so!
We are thankful for the opportunity to help you increase your health and
well-being with Chiropractic care. But we're also thankful that you learn as
much as you can to arm yourself with information to make better decisions for
you and your family.
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