Brendano

Medical Mistakes May 5, 2009

      Benjamin Jones JR. was a 59 year old retired toolmaker who entered Osteopathic Medical Center of Texas in Fort Worth in July 1991. He had lung cancer surgery. The doctors removed the right lung. The lung was cancer free. A year passed and Jones decided to look over his medical records. He found out the cancer was in the left lung. Oops! He died of lung cancer in February 1994.

     Celebrity cases bring more attention to medical mistakes. For example, March 17,2008 Dennis Quaid’s infant twins almost died because they were given an adult dose of blood thinner. The nurse misread the labels and gave the twins a massive overdose of the drug. The twins survived the overdose and Dennis Quaid speaks out against medical errors.

      Institute of Medicine estimates that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors. According to Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s website about healthcare “about 100,000 Americans die from medical errors in hospitals every year”. Medical errors are the 8^th leading cause of death of Americans.

     While most mistakes highlight for a good reason, the people who died by medical mistakes. The other casualty is the health professional themselves. The Day Joy Died is written by Dr. Gary Brandeland. He was the doctor who had in his care a pregnant woman name Joy. She was going to have a C-section done. The anesthetist made a mistake and it left both Joy and her baby brain dead. Even though it wasn’t Dr. Brandeland’s fault, he was deeply affected by Joy’s death. On that day, part of Dr. Brandeland died as well as Joy. He had to tell Joy’s family alone and the rest of the health care staff treated him as a leper. He suffered from depression and even affected his relationship at home, he divorced his wife. He is now a ER Physician in Minnesota. One of the reasons the article mentioned that common mistakes occurred from overworked and understaffed nurses. Health insurance agencies try to trim costs and cutback on quality.

     Putting a price on human life has other consequences. For- profit hospitals have higher medical errors than non-profit and teaching hospitals. One-third of patients with health problems in the United States report experiencing medical, medication, or test errors, the highest rate of any nation in a new Commonwealth Fund international survey.

     The number of mistakes could be higher because most mistakes are not reported. While medical malpractice doesn’t add much to cost of health care, less than ½ of 1 percent of health care spending, it is still a symptom of our broken health care system.

     First, medical mistakes would be investigated by creating an independent review board. Secondly, universal health care would make the health care system publically accountable. Everyone would receive a report about medical care in the United States.