Dead By Mistake....Medical Care problems

I have been following a story relating to the many many "accidental" deaths made by "professional" health care doctors. This story hits home for all of us and needs to be addressed.

First I would like to personally say that I have always thought that when I go see a Dr. or a Surgeon etc, I don't care about their fancy "degrees" on the wall. What I want to see is the transcript of their GRADES. Lets face it...a D is passing. I don't want to see a Dr. who barely got by with C's and D's. How do you know who is really treating you. If their grades were posted on their wall...well then we would be able to make an informed decision on whether this Dr. is worth seeing or not.

No A's and B's...no work done on me by you.

Now to the story:

We read these horror stories in our local newspaper all the time, but this is really getting out of control.

Experts say that Medical harm kills almost 200,000 a year. This harm refers to mistakes made by Dr's and your care givers. They also state that 98,000 people die from preventable medical errors each year. In fact more Americans die each month of preventable medical injuries than died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (More per month)

In addition to this, a federal Centers for disease control and prevention study concluded that 99,000 patients succumb to hospital acquired infections. Almost all of these deaths are preventable.

Ten years ago a publicized federal report called the death toll shocking and challenged the medical community to cut it in half within 5 years. Instead a national investigation found that the medical community, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and most states have overwhelmingly failed to take the effective steps outlined in the report a decade ago.

Due to this a reported 2 Million Americans have died needlessly of preventable medical mistakes. Of course this has been treated with secrecy.

In an analysis that lifted the veil of secrecy showed that in five states...New York, California, Texas, Washington and Connecticut only 20% of the 1434 hospitals are participating in the National safety campaigns.

Now we have the Obama administration wrangling with congress about access to health care, while frustrated patient safety leaders say this "to err is human" attitude needs to be addressed.

Although this has sparked awareness of the problem the revolution of this is doomed by a lack of political leadership and the health care lobby's vested interest in maintaining business as usual.

I guess the business of death by mistake is pretty profitable also.

Statements were made, "We didn't have any government efforts."

In a Seattle hospital a patient died after an antiseptic was injected into her bloodstream instead of the dye that was to be used. The problem, the two containers were both filled with clear liquid and not marked.

Deaths from medical injuries happen behind the doors of a hospital room. Unlike a national tragedy that takes hundreds of lives in an instant, these deaths are singular and often secret.

The report stated that Doctors fudge death certificates, leaving out information that would point to medical error as a prime or contributing cause of death.

Why?: Doctors aren't given enough motivation to report medical errors, and because of liability, "it would cause them problems down the road, so that there is a disincentive to report it."

Doesn't that seem illegal?

The OBAMA Administration does not support a nation wide mandatory reporting system. According to Nancy Ann DeParle (Obama's health advisor), "the best thing to do is to create the incentives and the knowledge around best practices to prevent the errors".

What...A Doctor needs and incentive to do his job right...what should we do..give them even more money?

MORE SECRECY AHEAD:

Under federal regulations, medical practitioners can be fined $10,000 for publicly revealing information about their errors. (does that make sense to anyone else?)

The federal government (Obama's administration) will not have involvement with this.

"Richard Flagg drowned in his own blood.

Surgeons at Meadowland Hospital in NJ accidentally removed Flagg's healthy lung, leaving behind a tumor in the diseased lung. The tumor bled and made him cough. Flagg survived three years, attached to oxygen until the tumor ruptured and he drowned in his blood.

Stanley Stinnett choked on his own vomit".

Stinnet entered the hospital and didn't have much choice about his care. They did nothing for him but fill him with medication to let him die peacefully. The problem: There was nothing wrong with him except for 4 fractured ribs. Rather than finding this out they pumped him with drugs..he choked and started to vomit and died from complications of the drugs administered to him.

A women went in for a routine hysterectomy which resulted in an infection so bad that she had to have her left leg amputated just to save her life. Her lawyer said that bacteria seeped in during surgery, and it took too long for the hospital to take action on her dropping white blood cell counts. Even though it was staring them in the face.

Another women 72 years old, wasn't feel well and went to the hospital. The X-ray was taken and she was told she had bronchitis. She was given meds told to go home and rest and let the meds take it course. She went home and died in her bed that day. The coroners office said she had pneumonia, not bronchitis and that one of her lungs was soaked with fluid.

This of course goes on and on.

Does anyone else want a few things done about this?

Why doesn't Obama's administration address this?

Why doesn't Obama think this is a problem?

Why does Obama think we should give incentives for Doctors to tell the truth?

I NEVER SAID THAT....I NEVER AGREED TO THIS...DID YOU?