Where is the outrage? A recent editorial in the November 11 issue of USA Today brought up a subject that you would think would cause shock and public outrage. Let me ask you this: What if an everyday practice was responsible for one death every 3 minutes? Would you be shocked? Scared? What if one person died every 3 minutes from texting while driving? What if one person died every 3 minutes from a firearm at home? Don’t you think there would be a national campaign to stamp out such a practice? However, this particular practice receives no scrutiny, and the public doesn’t even seem to notice or care.
Citing a survey from the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, the USA Today piece questioned the public’s “blasé’” reaction to the fact that an estimated 180,000 patient die every year from medical “adverse events”. That’s 493 deaths per day, 20 deaths per hour, and one death every 3 minutes. What’s even more concerning is that the HHS survey estimated that 80,000 of these deaths could be prevented. Some examples cited were letting infections develop, giving the patient the wrong medication or giving an excess dose of the right drug.
If 500 people per day died from not wearing seatbelts, there would be national uproar and legislative action passed to force people to wear seatbelts. Locally, one person was injured by a motorist who drove through a red light, and the state issued a “Target Red” campaign to remind drivers to stop at red lights.
So, why is there no consumer outrage over medical care?
The numbers don’t lie. Let’s put this into perspective. A recent study in the medical journal SPINE revealed that patients who are treated by chiropractic adjustments have no more of a risk to have a stroke than they would if they were to go to their medical doctor for a routine visit. The “risk” associated with chiropractic neck adjustments is as low as 1 in 5,000,000 manipulations performed. However, a group in Connecticut tried to get chiropractic adjustments outlawed based upon these numbers.
To further put this into perspective, the U.S. military death toll in Iraq from 2003-2009 is somewhere around 4,300 deaths. That means that 250 times more people de every day from medical errors than soldiers in Iraq. Yet, people are outraged when they hear of a soldier dying in combat. (I‘m not minimizing the sacrifices that our soldiers make for our country. I’m just using this as an illustration).
Firearm deaths n the US from the years 2000-2007 totaled 240,997. That makes the number of deaths from guns about 20% of that caused by medicine. But, we have nationwide campaigns to stamp out gun use.
There is no national campaign for “Target Hospitals” or “Guns don’t kill people, medicine does.”
So, what is the average person to do? First of all, there is absolutely NO REASON for any person to be ignorant of the options surrounding their health. You are reading this article because you have internet access. Start using the internet to become educated about your health, instead of relying on television commercials urging you to ask your doctor about the latest medication. Honestly, are you really going to let a “dancing mucous” or an animated bumblebee educate you about your health? Take some responsibility! There is NOBODY that will care about your body more than you do. No doctor, hospital, minister, family member will be able to take care of YOU more than you are willing to take care of yourself.
You need to get out your brown bag, see what medications you are on, and start looking for alternatives. Get off your duff and start exercising. Stop eating garbage and fuel your body properly.
I’m tired of seeing people with so much potential losing all of their vitality to illness. I’m tired of seeing 30 year old driving motorized carts in Wal-Mart.
The bottom line is this: We all need to be better stewards with our health. If you decide to put your health in someone else’s hands, you might just become a statistic.
