Study: Medical Errors Top Cause of Death Worldwide – 4 out of 10 Patients Harmed

A new report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.6 million people die annually in low-and middle-income countries from medical errors, and that most of those deaths are related to misdiagnosis and administration of pharmaceutical products. According to the WHO: “Four out of every ten patients are harmed during primary and ambulatory health care. The most detrimental errors are related to diagnosis, prescription and the use of medicines.”

1 in 5 Elderly US Patients Injured by Medical Care

A new study of more than 12,500 Medicare patients (with an average age of 76) found that nearly one in five suffer from medical injuries when receiving care. Two-thirds of the injuries occurred during outpatient care (such as doctor’s offices) rather than in hospitals. The often-preventable injuries were the direct result of medical care or management, not a result of the patient’s underlying condition. Past research has suggested at least 210,000 Americans are killed by preventable hospital errors each year.

Death of Americans: The Medical System is Now the Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.

A new study says that the number of deaths from medical errors may be much higher than what is being reported. This study estimates that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year who go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death. That would make medical errors the third-leading cause of death in America, behind heart disease, which is the first, and cancer, which is second. However, if you factor in deaths from medicine that are NOT mistakes, it easily makes the medical system the #1 cause of death in the U.S. today.

New York Times and Wall Street Journal Warn that Hospitals are Killing Us

By Dr. Mercola

If medical errors were a disease, they would be the sixth leading cause of death in America, writes surgeon Dr. Marty Makary in the Wall Street Journal.1

By some estimates, they may actually be the leading cause… These errors kill the equivalent of four jumbo jets’ worth of passengers… every week, Dr. Makary says, and this […]