Medical negligence takes and maims thousands of lives
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Scientists are concerned about alarming figures. The so-called "never events", which means "unacceptable incidents," occur at least four thousand times a year in the US alone.
Scientists from the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, conducted research to find out the real extent of the problem and understand how often mistakes made by health professionals occur. Experts note that between 1990 and 2010, more than 80,000 such incidents occurred.
The results of the researchers are based on data provided by the National Bank of Medical Information, which records all the data on mistakes made by physicians.
As it turned out, mistakes made by doctors for various reasons, including due to negligence, are not so rare. Just imagine, there are 39 cases a week, when during operations in the patient forget different subjects. But that is not all. Someone the doctor will leave an unexpected gift inside the body, and someone simply will not operate the wrong part of the body. Cases when patients perform operations not in the right place occur 20 times a week. The most common items that are extracted from patients' bodies are sponges and towels.
The fact that in the last twenty years alone in the United States alone there have been more than 80,000 such terrible medical "blunders" indicates that there are, in fact, even more of them. A person comes to the hospital and complains of poor health or pain - thus, it is possible to correct medical errors and extract foreign objects from his body. But just think how many of those who still live with some tool in the body and do not even suspect about it. Of course, there is still the possibility that a forgetful surgeon will grab his tools himself, then from the patient will extract everything that was sewn up much faster.
"There are mistakes in the health sector that can not be prevented, no matter how hard you try. For example, even if you make maximum efforts, the spread of infection will prevent impossible. However, situations like those when a surgeon forgets a tool in his patient, if not to zero, then at least to a minimum. However, this study and the figures that we presented are direct evidence that there are a lot of work and far more that day when the number of mistakes of doctors will go down, "says lead author of the study, MD Marty Makariya.
Researchers are relying on the fact that the scale of the problem should push the doctors and controlling bodies to develop a more effective control system.
For more than 20 years, there were 9,744 cases of medical negligence, which cost $ 1.3 billion - the total amount of compensation that the victims received.
According to experts, 6.6% of patients due to medical errors did not survive, 32.9% - received chronic diseases. There are also those who got off with a mild fright - 59.2%.
In addition to surgical errors, there are others. For example, patients often "treat" with the wrong medication or give the wrong dose, women who seek artificial fertilization help inseminate with the sperm of the wrong donor, people do not operate in the right place, but sometimes they do not The operating table is not the right person. Take care of yourself!
