What is the third biggest cause of death in the US?

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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/07/17/what-is-the-third-biggest-caus.html

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Medical Error

Scares the bejesus out’a me. Said the atheist…

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“Scaring the bejesus out” used to be on the list until they figured out what a stroke was.

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“Medical error,” as in, patient wasn’t actually dead.

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Ouch.

That’s gotta hurt.

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Why do they break out “flu/pneumonia” from other respiratory diseases?

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Don’t give up hope!

Congress has been working on reducing death by medical errors. Simplicity itself: keep people from getting medical care.

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Well, personally I sure as hell hope it doesn’t happen.

Right now, this very moment, political science majors are overriding highly trained physicians.

Hack politicians, abetted by high-school dropout media pundits, are sanctimoniously taking control of determining who can be prescribed painkillers. Because politicians are so much more trustworthy, right?

And as a direct result of this uninformed interference with medical praxis, heroin abuse is on the uptick and private prison owners are chortling with glee.

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“A hospital is no place to be sick.” Samuel Goldwyn (1882–1974)

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Ok, while it ispainfully obvious that the US has odd spending policies that ignore statistics…how would you spend that money to avoid medical error?

The obvious approaches are reducing working hours and getting a second opinion which doesn’t seem like something the American government is well positioned to enforce given the “free market is best” ideology.

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You mean line moving up Tramadol to Schedule IV?

Thanks to my appointment dates varying some, somehow now I am nearly a week off from when I get my prescription and when I can actually pick it up.

Last doctor visit they said they were talking about bumping up Nerontin. WTF? Can you even abuse that?

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Would contracting flu/pheumonia while in-hospital be counted as medical error?

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Since the $300 pills my neurologist prescribed me didn’t work, she prescribed me $500 autoinjectors which I had my first opportunity to try last week.

They don’t work either. Fun times for me, although luckily I had a few hoarded vicodins left.

All this to avoid giving me safe, effective 29¢ pills that are available over the counter in other countries.

Thanks, government drug warriors, your “opioid epidemic” moral panic is doing a great job of increasing human suffering in the world.

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I would assume respiratory diseases would include asthma, COPD, emphysema, and other chronic conditions not caused by a viral or bacterial infection.

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You already spend far beyond what any other nation spends on healthcare and this is the result. Worse, the rise in costs show no sign of stopping. I don’t believe throwing more money at an endless pit is going to help you.

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Well, make it difficult or impossible for people to get medical care and that number will drop quickly.

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So, one hospital ER misdiagnosed my appendicitis as food poisoning 3 times in 9 months, before I changed hospitals. Had I died, would that statistically count as 1 mistake, or 3?

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I think pheumonia is the medical term for not suffering a medical error while in hospital.

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And to think you’re applauding the GOP’s valiant attempt to stop people from coming into contact with physicians. Only by removing healthcare can Americans be saved from dieing at their hands.

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