DEATH BY MEDICINE Part 1 - (December 2003)

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

 

This study is done based on the figures reported in

medical publications about " adverse events " which were

volutarily reported. Since there have been estimates

that only from 5% to 20% of these adverse events are

ever reported, the real actual figures for a study of

this type would be much higher. So, the real figures

would be a multiple that could be anywhere from 5

times to 20 times higher than shown here. F.

 

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/deathmed.html

 

DEATH BY MEDICINE (December 2003)

 

Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio

MD, Dorothy Smith PhD, Gary Null PhD. (Reprinted with

permission.)

 

ABSTRACT

 

A definitive review and close reading of medical

peer-review journals, and government health statistics

shows that American medicine frequently causes more

harm than good. The number of people having

in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to

prescribed medicine is 2.2 million.1 Dr. Richard

Besser, of the CDC, in 1995, said the number of

unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral

infections was 20 million. Dr. Besser, in 2003, now

refers to tens of millions of unnecessary

antibiotics.2,2a The number of unnecessary medical and

surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5

million.3 The number of people exposed to unnecessary

hospitalization annually is 8.9 million.4 The total

number of iatrogenic deaths shown in the following

table is 783,936. It is evident that the American

medical system is the leading cause of death and

injury in the United States. The 2001 heart disease

annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death

rate, 553,251. (5)

 

TABLES AND FIGURES (see Section on Statistical Tables

and Figures, below, for exposition)

 

ANNUAL PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC COST OF MEDICAL

INTERVENTION

 

Condition Deaths Cost Author

 

Hospital ADR 106,000 $12 billion Lazarou1 Suh49

 

Medical error 98,000 $2 billion IOM6

 

Bedsores 115,000 $55 billion Xakellis7 Barczak8

 

Infection 88,000 $5 billion Weinstein9 MMWR10

 

Malnutrition 108,800 ----------- Nurses Coalition11

 

Outpatient ADR 199,000 $77 billion Starfield12

Weingart112

 

Unnecessary Procedures 37,136 $122 billion HCUP3,13

 

Surgery-Related 32,000 $9 billion AHRQ85

 

TOTAL 783,936 $282 billion

 

We could have an even higher death rate by using Dr.

Lucien Leape’s 1997 medical and drug error rate of 3

million.14 Multiplied by the fatality rate of 14%

(that Leape used in 1994)16 we arrive at an annual

death rate of 420,000 for drug errors and medical

errors combined. If we put this number in place of

Lazarou’s 106,000 drug errors and the Institute of

Medicine’s (IOM) 98,000 medical errors (which may have

a drug error overlap with Lazarou’s study), we could

add another 216,000 deaths making a total of 999,936

deaths annually.

 

Condition Deaths Cost Author

 

ADR/med error 420,000 $200 billion Leape 199714

 

TOTAL 999,936

 

 

 

ANNUAL UNNECESSARY MEDICAL EVENTS STATISTICS

 

Unnecessary Events People Affected Iatrogenic Events

 

Hospitalization 8.9 million4 1.78 million16

 

Procedures 7.5 million3 1.3 million40

 

TOTAL 16.4 million 3.08 million

 

The enumerating of unnecessary medical events is very

important in our analysis. Any medical procedure that

is invasive and not necessary must be considered as

part of the larger iatrogenic picture. Unfortunately,

cause and effect go unmonitored. The figures on

unnecessary events represent people ( " patients " ) who

are thrust into a dangerous healthcare system. They

are helpless victims. Each one of these 16.4 million

lives is being affected in a way that could have a

fatal consequence. Simply entering a hospital could

result in the following:

 

1. In 16.4 million people, 2.1% chance of a serious

adverse drug reaction,1 (186,000)

 

2. In 16.4 million people, 5-6% chance of acquiring a

nosocomial infection,9 (489,500)

 

3. In16.4 million people, 4-36% chance of having an

iatrogenic injury in hospital (medical error and

adverse drug reactions),16 (1.78 million)

 

4. In 16.4 million people, 17% chance of a procedure

error, 40 (1.3 million)

 

All the statistics above represent a one-year time

span. Imagine the numbers over a ten-year period.

Working with the most conservative figures from our

statistics we project the following 10-year death

rates.

 

TEN-YEAR DEATH RATES FOR MEDICAL INTERVENTION

 

Condition 10-Year Deaths Author

 

Adverse Drug Reaction 1.06 million (1)

 

Medical error 0.98 million (6)

 

Bedsores 1.15 million (7,8)

 

Nosocomial Infection 0.88 million (9,10)

 

Malnutrition 1.09 million (11)

 

Outpatients 1.99 million (12, 112)

 

Unnecessary Procedures 371,360 (3,13)

 

Surgery-related 320,000 (85)

 

TOTAL 7,841,360 (7.8 million)

 

Our projected statistic of 7.8 million iatrogenic

deaths is more than all the casualties from wars that

America has fought in its entire history.

 

Our projected figures for unnecessary medical events

occurring over a 10-year period are also dramatic.

 

TEN-YEAR STATISTICS FOR UNNECESSARY INTERVENTION

 

Unnecessary Events 10-year Number Iatrogenic Events

 

Hospitalization 89 million4 17 million

 

Procedures 75 million3 15 million

 

TOTAL 164 million

 

These projected figures show that a total of 164

million people, approximately 56% of the population of

the United States, have been treated unnecessarily by

the medical industry – in other words, about 50,000

people per day.

 

We have added, cumulatively, figures from 13

references of annual iatrogenic deaths. However, there

is invariably some degree of overlap and double

counting that can occur in gathering non-finite

statistics. Death numbers don’t come with names and

birth dates to prevent duplication On the other hand,

there are many missing statistics. As we will show,

only about 5 to 20% of iatrogenic incidents are even

recorded.16,24,25,33,34 And, our outpatient iatrogenic

statistics112 only include drug-related events and not

surgical cases, diagnostic errors, or therapeutic

mishaps.

 

We have also been conservative in our inclusion of

statistics that were not reported in peer review

journals or by government institutions. For example,

on July 23, 2002, The Chicago Tribune analyzed records

from patient databases, court cases, 5,810 hospitals,

as well as 75 federal and state agencies and found

103,000 cases of death due to hospital infections, 75%

of which were preventable.152 We do not include this

figure but report the lower Weinstein figure of

88,000.9 Another figure that we withheld, for lack of

proper peer review was The National Committee for

Quality Assurance, September 2003 report which found

that at least 57,000 people die annually from lack of

proper care for commons diseases such as high blood

pressure, diabetes, or heart disease.153

 

Overlapping of statistics in Death by Medicine may

occur with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) paper that

designates " medical error " as including drugs,

surgery, and unnecessary procedures.6 Since we have

also included other statistics on adverse drug

reactions, surgery and, unnecessary procedures,

perhaps a much as 50% of the IOM number could be

redundant. However, even taking away half the 98,000

IOM number still leaves us with iatrogenic events as

the number one killer at 738,000 annual deaths.

 

Even greater numbers of iatrogenic deaths will

eventually come to light when all facets of health

care delivery are measured. Most iatrogenic statistics

are derived from hospital-based studies. However,

health care is no longer typically relegated to

hospitals. Today, health care is shared by hospitals,

outpatient clinics, transitional care, long-term care,

rehabilitative care, home care, and private

practitioners offices. In the current climate of

reducing health-care costs, the number of hospitals

and the length of patient stays are being slashed.

These measures will increase the number of patients

shunted into outpatient, home care, and long-term care

and the iatrogenic morbidity and mortality will also increase.