IATROGENIC, A WORD ENTERING OUR VOCABULARY WITH INCREASING FREQUENCY.

[Guest guest]

http://campaignfortruth.com/Eclub/101002/parentspressured.htm

 

Parents Pressured to Put Kids on Ritalin

 

 

 

N.Y. court orders use of medicine

 

Some public schools are accusing parents of child abuse when they balk at giving

their kids drugs such as Ritalin, and as judges begin to agree, some parents are

medicating their children for fear of having them hauled away.

By Karen Thomas, USA TODAY 8.8.2002

more at http://www.usatoday.com/life/health/child/lhchi193.htm

 

 

Psychotropic drugs to be administered to defendants

On August 20th, 2002, the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) filed an

amicus curiae brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a St. Louis

dentist. Dr. Charles Sell is appealing to the Court to stay a lower court's

decision to have him forcibly drugged in order to stand trial. In May, the

Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals ruled that Dr. Sell could be injected

with psychotropic drugs in order to make him " mentally competent " to stand trial

for insurance fraud. More at http://www.alchemind.org/News/sell_ussc1.htm

 

School lunches making 'em sick

The US spends over $7 billion on foods for school lunches that are sickening

children. More at http://mercola.com/2002/aug/17/school_lunches.htm

 

Quarter-million doctor-induced deaths annually: Iatrogenocide?

Idaho Observer, March 2002

 

IATROGENIC [Gk., iatros, physician, genein, to produce], caused by treatment or

diagnostic procedures. An iatrogenic disorder is a condition caused by medical

personnel or procedures or through exposure to the environment of a health care

facility, including fears instilled in patients by remarks or questions of

examining physicians. See also: 'nosocomial', (iatrogenesis, iatrogeny, n.)

~Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1998

 

It is well known that many new drugs, devices, surgeries and treatments are

touted as miracles of modern medicine. However, there are two sides, possibly

two hundred sides to such claims. This article focuses on a dark side. Caveat

Emptor: Buyer Beware.

 

Ninety-five percent of the people I know are doctors, scientists or activists in

health care issues and/or victims of iatrogeny -- including myself. They have

commanded my honor and respect since many of these people are addressing

epidemic iatrogeny in their work.

 

A generation ago, people trusted their doctors blindly and implicitly. The

personal bonds people used to form with their doctors have largely been replaced

with the cold hard contemporary reality that medicine has become a

$multi-billion per year business with little room for compassion. The healthcare

market place is not kind and people have lost trust. Iatrogeny plays a large and

ugly role in this.

 

A recent study published in The Journal of The American Medical Association

(2000:284:94) by Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, showed that in the U.S. there are:

 

· 12,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery

· 7,000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals

· 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals

· 80,000 deaths/year from nosocomial infections in hospitals

· 106,000 deaths/year from adverse effects of medications

 

This totals 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes, placing iatrogeny as

the third leading cause of death in the U.S., second only to heart disease and

cancer. The scary part is that this does not include disabilities and disorders;

just deaths in hospitalized patients. In any event, when one ponders that more

than four times as many people die in one year from doctors' mistakes than died

in the entire Vietnam War, one is aghast at why this information isn't making

headlines or why huge think tanks funded by medicopolitical interests haven't

formed.

 

We have the American Heart Association to address heart disease, Richard Nixon's

" War on Cancer, " and even groups like " Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "

Organizations have been formed to address almost every sort of issue, save

iatrogeny.

 

My guess is that medicopolitics have not figured out a way to capitalize on of

all these deaths and disorders, ... yet. There is, however, a small " experts "

consortium that does address iatrogeny in the journals, but such studies are few

and far between. Funding such studies doesn't appear to be sound business

practice.

 

Iatrogeny is not exclusive to the U.S. The British Medical Journal stated March

18, 2000 that, " In Australia, medical error results in as many as 18,000

unnecessary deaths, and more than 50,000 patients become disabled every year. "

 

Studies released in the last 10 years show similar trends in the UK, Canada and

New Zealand. New Zealand has a large percentage ratio of adverse drug reactions

comparable to the U.S. It should be noted that the U.S. and New Zealand are the

only countries that allow aggressive pharmaceutical drug advertisements.

 

One very interesting statistic are deaths attributed to addictive drugs in the

UK between 1990 and 1995:

· Benzodiazepines - 1,810

· Methadone - 676

· Heroin - 291

 

This emphasizes my point that millions of dollars are given to organizations for

deaths and disabilities from a myriad of causes, except iatrogeny. Here we have

two legal prescription drugs causing more deaths each, than heroin.

 

Many can pooh-pooh these statistics and claim that to err is human, etc.,

however there comes a point when one must look deeper. The facts and statistics

are too overwhelming to ignore. Those in power have choices to make. They can

rationalize, deny or take responsible action against epidemic iatrogeny.

 

The latter seems to be slow in genesis. There has been much denial and silence

from the allopathic medical industrial complex. Since medicine has become an arm

of business and since business and politics are such passionate bedfellows, one

must look at some other interesting facts.

 

Drug companies spend huge fortunes for political influence. In fact lobbying for

pharmaceutical interests in the first half of 2000 reached $42.9 million; and it

was estimated that $230 million would be spent during the election. George Bush

welcomed $1.7 million from drug companies just for his inauguration celebrations

(British Medical Journal January 27, 2001).

 

Drug companies are a business and have always been a business. They do not give

such an investment without an expected return with profits. Perhaps this is why

officials turn a blind eye to the fact that doctors and hospitals are

responsible for nearly a quarter-million deaths in the U.S. per year. Or perhaps

this is why the pharma-companies manufacture pesticides and chemicals that cause

cancer and disease and then manufacture drugs to treat diseases they cause that

can cause even more disorders to create a market for more drugs -- and more

profit.

 

The scenario above describes a very lucrative cycle. Perhaps this is why funding

for disease research successfully diverts attention from the pharmocartels' own

carcinogenic and deadly products. One need not look too hard for reasons why

doctors' and hospitals' mistakes are the third leading cause of death in America

-- with no end in sight.

 

Many believe that Barbara Starfield's study cited earlier is just the tip of the

iceberg. After all, the study only looked at hospitalized patients. What of the

in home and outpatient errors? There are more people to consider in these

groups, and certainly more iatrogeny. Could it be that iatrogeny is the leading

cause of death in the U.S.? In the World?

 

As startling and unsupported as that sounds, it may very well be true. At any

rate, the iatrogenic holocaust makes World War II deaths pale in comparison. Yet

only patronizing and minimal attempts to recognize and correct iatrogeny have

been made.

 

Murder Or Mistake?

The fine line between murder or mistake is a hot potato. If you saw your

neighbors being killed one by one or en masse, yet did nothing about it, or took

up for the killers, you could be guilty of " accessory to murder " or " accessory

to murder after the fact. " Many analogies and ethical juxtapositions could be

generated in such a debate. One could even make the argument for a global

elitist plan at population control allowing iatrogeny to gain such momentum.

 

Regardless of etiology, Iatrogeny is real. It is rampant and far from being

under control. By making iatrogeny, through semantics, sound as if it is an

infectious disease beyond the control of physicians and hospitals, we allow the

medical profession and pharmaceutical cartels to distance themselves from

responsibility and relieve them from the culpability for what mirrors negligent

homicide.

 

It would be humanly impossible to eliminate genuine mistakes entirely. " But how

many times does a mistake happen until it's not just a mistake anymore, but

negligence? "

 

This author believes that 225,000 deaths every year may be an example of when

mistakes cross over to the darkness of negligence. If so, then we are witnessing

the greatest holocaust to befall mankind ever.

 

In closing, I leave you with my own definition of a freshly coined word:

Iatrogenocide - [Gk, iatros, physician, genein, to produce, cide, killing] The

extermination of a population in a systematic fashion through medical error.

 

For more information on iatrogeny, contact me at freeyurko

Originally published in The Journal of Degenerative Disease, February/March

2002: 3(3rd); pages 37-38

 

PHILLIP DAY COMMENT: CTM is committed to educating citizens on the dangers of

turning to drugs to solve every ill. No one believes they will be a victim of

medication or doctors until they become one. And then they notice the blank,

suspicious stares of others who disbelief their stories.

 

The figures quoted above on iatrogenic death from America were published in my

book Health Wars, which came out last year. Since then, across the world, other

examples of this catastrophic death toll have been repeatedly shown. The drug

industry knows it, which is why it now seeks, by stealth, to seize control of

the alternative health market. What else can you do when your brightest

marketing boys have so appallingly misjudged the public's intelligence and will?

 

 

 

 

 

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