Why
would doctors harm their patients? Why do we continue to just stand in the
background watching, refusing to speak up? This is what people do every day
while doctors are harming and killing their patients. Doctors are like hungry
lions, vicious and cold-blooded, just waiting for the money to roll in like an
oncoming storm. There are giraffes in the background baffled about what they
should do. They should speak up. They should tell someone what these lions are
doing. Doctors should not get away with what they are doing to their patients.
We should not just be standing around waiting to do something. We should speak
up about the “loving” and “caring” people we call doctors; a large percentage
of people claim that they have experienced medical errors. How many of these flaws have gone unreported
and how do you know if you have had a medical error?
There are many types of medical errors: surgical errors,
medication errors, misdiagnosis, and equipment and lab reports. Surgical errors
are when a mistake is made during any type of surgery whether it is cosmetic or
medical. Surgical errors can be caused by infection, medical instruments left
in the body after surgery, and other serious injuries caused by surgery.
Medication errors are any error caused by medicine. Medication errors can be
caused by a mix-up in medicines or a problem reading what the doctor wrote for
the patient to have. Misdiagnosis is when a doctor diagnoses the patient for
the wrong symptoms. Equipment and lab reports can be the one thing that can
save or harm a patient and if you misinterpret these findings or if something’s
wrong with the equipment, that can be the end of the patient‘s life. Do you know how many people die each year
from these errors? Over 225,000 people die from these errors every year making
it the number 3 killer in America. (Medical Errors, The FDA, and Problems
With Prescription Drugs) That is a really sad fact to face.
People always think that doctors are the one that can
cure whatever they come in with. When in reality, they can make it ten times
worse. According to the article The Emily Jerry Foundation,
founded by Chris Jerry, a loving father, in memory of his daughter Emily Jerry
who died of medical errors. At the time of her death she was only two years
old. She was diagnosed with a yolk sac tumor in her abdomen when she was a year
and a half old. This is when her chemotherapy started. She was always so bright
and happy and before her chemotherapy was even over, her tumor completely
disappeared! The doctors wanted to do a last round of chemotherapy, just to
make sure that there were no more traces of cancer left in her body. Two days
after her birthday on February 26, 2006 was her last chemotherapy treatment.
This is when everything started to go wrong. She woke up from her nap feeling
really groggy and complaining that her head hurt which was really unnatural for
her, Chris Jerry claimed. Afterwards she started profusely vomiting and then
she went completely limp. They put her on life support that night and everybody
prayed that everything was going to be alright. The next morning she was found
brain dead on life support. All of this was caused by an overdose of sodium
chloride in her chemotherapy IV bag because the nurse filled a bag with
concentrated sodium chloride solution of 23.4% instead of the less than one
percent that she was supposed to get. The funny thing about this was that the
nurses at that hospital did not even have any training.
There is good news about this subject though; it can be
prevented. According to SurgicalFire.Org, medical errors can be prevented with
20 helpful tips. SurgicalFire states that if you have any questions, ask them
to make sure that your doctor knows what they are doing and that you are aware
of what is going on as well. They also state that if you have any questions on
the medication that your doctor prescribes, ask. You never know if they gave
you the right or wrong kind of medication and to make sure that you don’t
accidentally overdose. It is also important to tell the doctor if you have any
allergies so they will not give you any kind of medication that is of any harm
to you. A study by the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health
Sciences states that 88 percent of medicine errors are caused by the wrong drug
or a drug overdose. (Preventing Medical Errors) SurgicalFire also states
that if you have any test results, to ask for them. Do not assume that no news,
is good news. Everybody has a question about the medical world and it is time
for you to ask yours.
Medical errors can be very frustrating but as long as you
know what they are they can be spotted a lot faster. You do not want to be like
one of those families who does not know what killed their beloved family member
or one of those people who has experienced a medical errors and has let it gone
on without anybody noticing. Emily’s family was really sad when she passed away
but at least they got to the bottom of it and found the reason why she
died. You want to be like those people
who asked their doctor what was wrong with them and the people that knew that
the doctors knew what they were doing. Do not be one of those 225,00 people
that die every year; be one of those people who stands up to their doctor and
says what the doctor’s doing is wrong. Do not be part of the sad statistics; be
one of the people that sticks around long enough to create the statistics.
