Not So Dumb Ways To Die: Medical Mistakes
From the Why Are We Not More Pissed Off About This series
We’ve all heard the urban legends…the one about the guy who went into the hospital for gall bladder surgery and instead had his appendix accidentally removed, or the story about the patient who underwent cardiac surgery intended for someone else because they had similar last names. Except, these aren’t urban legends; they’ve actually happened. So how common are medical mistakes and how often do they lead to death? Studies in the U.S. suggest they’re a lot more common than we think.
According to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, medical errors are the third leading cause of death to Americans —beaten out only by heart disease and cancer. In fact, you are 20 times more likely to die from a medical error than of a gunshot wound. Not to be dismissive of the gun issue…it is absolutely important and deserves our attention. However, it receives an inordinate amount of media time while accounting for only .5% of American deaths; in 2015, gun violence resulted in about 13,000 fatalities.
Now compare that to the 10% of deaths, or about 250,000, resulting from preventable medical errors that range from misdiagnoses, to improper medicinal dosing and administration, to incompetence. All sorts of reasons are cited for the errors: under-staffed hospitals, fatigued doctors and nurses, carelessness, or systemic issues involving miscommunication and poor documentation. Medical mistakes are not limited to hospitals. They frequently occur in pharmacies, clinics, doctor’s offices, nursing homes…basically anywhere we receive medical treatment.
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published To Err is Human. At the time, the report claimed that about 98,000 deaths in the U.S. were due to errors within the medical community. It was supposed to be a huge wake up call to the health care industry, yet little progress has been made — 16 years later, more deaths are being attributed to errors. It’s unlikely that there has been a 150% increase in fatalities since 1999, we’ve just gotten better at counting them.
Annually, a quarter million people die unnecessarily at just about every hospital in the country and little attention is paid to it. So, why are we not outraged at these numbers? I don’t know…maybe it’s apathy, or maybe we’re in denial and don’t believe it could happen to us. Maybe it’s the elevated status bestowed upon doctors and nurses — they’re the good guys, right? Whatever the reasons, this is an issue that needs to become a national priority. But, until then, here are some of the most horrific and commonly reported medical errors.
Medications
Sometimes it’s the wrong dose, the wrong medication, or a bad reaction with another prescription. These occur more often than you’d think. The Institute of Medicine estimates about 1.5 million medication related errors occur in the U.S. every year. Think about it…how many times has it happened to you? It can happen in the hospital, at a pharmacy, or at the doctor’s office. Check your meds every time and don’t be afraid to ask questions and find out what they are giving you.
Blood Transfusions
Performed about 3 million times throughout the year, blood transfusions are among the most common hospital procedures in the U.S. Typically it is a safe and life-saving intervention used for trauma victims, surgery, fighting infectious disease, and cancer. Occasionally, medical complications arise. Following transfusions, be on the lookout for anxiety, chest or back pain, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, nausea, or changes in your pulse rate since these can signal an allergic reaction or infection.
Hospital Acquired Infections
The CDC estimates that about 1.7 million hospital acquired infections occur every year with urinary tract infections (36%) and surgical infections (20%) being the most common. This can happen through contaminated equipment, bed linens, and improper hand washing by medical staff. While most patients can fight off the infection, those who are immunocompromised will be susceptible to infection. Further complicating matters are the rise of antibiotic resistant microbes often found in healthcare settings— they cause about 23,000 deaths each year.
Diagnostic Errors
Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis affects about 20 million Americans. Among the most commonly missed conditions are cancer, mental disorders, heart attacks, strokes, Lyme disease, thyroid issues, and pulmonary embolism. In defense of the medical community, they are often provided inaccurate or incomplete information by the patient. Doctors are human and just like everyone else, they have off days and can miss things. While not all mistakes adversely affect the patient, sometimes doctors just blow it — leading to incorrect/delayed treatment or no treatment at all.
Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Patient
Sometimes the care intended for one patient is accidentally administered to another. Whether it is the wrong surgical procedure or medical testing intended for some else, or amputation of the wrong leg…these are among the most inexcusable mistakes. Inadequate controls to verify patient identity and human error or the most common culprits. Luckily these errors are relatively rare and involve only about 1 in 112,000 surgical procedures.
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