Iatrogenic – a word you should know…

According to Webster’s, it means: Induced in a patient by a physician’s activity, manner, or therapy. In other words: Caused by a doctor.

Now doctors can cause all kinds of things. Cures. Wellness. Hope. But what about death? Is that something we’re used to thinking is caused by our doctors? Well, if you’ve been reading the Daily Dose – or my Real Health newsletter – for any length of time at all, you’ll probably answer a resounding YES to that last question. But if you’re new, I want to bring you up to speed on a truly frightening statistic — one that’ll shake you to your soon-to-be-ex-mainstream core: Doctor errors, of one type or another, are the 3rd largest cause of death in the U.S., killing nearly a quarter of a million of us every year…

You read that right: Behind heart disease and cancer, the actions of doctors kill more Americans than any other cause, according to a milestone report that originally appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in July 2000 (July 26; vol. 284, no. 4, pp. 483-5). I know, that’s almost 2 years ago. Why mention it now?

Because doctor’s errors became news again in the wake of the nationally publicized death of Jesica Santillan, the Mexican immigrant whose parents allegedly smuggled her into this country in hopes of saving her life with a heart/lung transplant — only to have her be given organs from a donor of the WRONG BLOOD TYPE. As you know, she subsequently underwent a second operation, suffered severe brain damage, and died on February 22.

Now, all immigration and legal issues aside, the fact remains that Jesica died because of doctor error – something we don’t even want to think about nowadays. But it happens in so many ways every day that it’s nearly impossible to avoid being touched by it. In fact, on March 12, the New York Times revealed another transplant gone wrong, back in August 2002. In this case, doctors gave a year-old baby part of her father’s liver – when it was her mother whose blood type matched. The baby died.

The JAMA report reveals not only the horrifying frequency of the problem, but also shows the extent to which the U.S. health care system contributes to it. I could run down the truly stunning list of statistics about the medication errors, unnecessary surgeries, hospital-borne infections, and on and on and on. But you wouldn’t even believe me if I did. It’s better you should look up the whole article yourself to the learn the truth, but make sure you’re not anywhere near a doctor when you do…

Otherwise, you might be tempted to engage in some iatrogenocide.

Written by William Campbell Douglass II, MD, and published on DrKelley.info, March 19, 2003. Embedded links (if any) may no longer be active. (Ed. 01.01.11)

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