The 3rd Leading Cause of Death
The Legislature is being pressured by out of state vaccine advocate Paul Offit and local organizations, using false narratives. Their intent is to create a law that would prosecute parents who choose alternative methods of treatment for their sick children. Health Freedom Idaho is grateful that our Legislators have said, year after year, that laws are already in place under Child Protective Services and mandated reporting to protect children from abuse. Yesterday, November 17, 2017 KIVI news reported that this topic will be brought up again in the 2018 Legislative session.
Health Freedom Idaho will be there again to address this topic. The legislation that has been brought to date, and voted down, proposed increased mandated reporting by Doctors and
There are concerns by many citizens of Idaho that the Legislature will put in a place a statute that will increase false allegations of “abuse” and erode parental authority in the health choice of their children. Legislators have been reminded that receiving medical treatment at a doctor’s office or hospital does not ensure health or healing. It does not guarantee longevity or of lack of suffering. Millions of other parents hold faith in modern medicine, yet are not punished when a treatment fails and their child is subsequently injured or killed.
A May 2016 study conducted by Johns Hopkins
When a child died after being given the wrong dosage of medicine by St. Lukes Hospital in Idaho, the nurse was NOT prosecuted because his intent was not to kill the child. Why does the Legislature want to hold parents to a different standard when they choose alternative means of care (including prayer) when treating their child’s illness?
Third Leading Cause of Death? MEDICIAL ERROR
A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine says medical errors should rank as the third leading cause of death in the United States — and highlights how shortcomings in
The authors, led by Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr. Martin Makary, call for changes in death certificates to better tabulate fatal lapses in care. In an open letter, they urge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to immediately add medical errors to its annual list reporting the top causes of death.
Based on an analysis of prior research, the Johns Hopkins study estimates that more than 250,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. On the CDC’s official list, that would rank just behind heart disease and cancer, which each took about 600,000 lives in 2014, and in front of respiratory disease, which caused about 150,000 deaths.
Medical mistakes that can lead to death range from surgical complications that go unrecognized to mix-ups with the doses or types of medications patients receive.
But no one knows the exact toll taken by medical errors. In significant part, that’s because the coding system used by CDC to record death certificate data doesn’t capture things like communication breakdowns, diagnostic errors and poor judgment that cost lives, the study says.
The author is Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and she
ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:
- 12,000 — unnecessary surgery
- 7,000 — medication errors in hospitals
- 20,000 — other errors in hospitals
- 80,000 — infections in hospitals
- 106,000 — non-error, negative effects of drugs
These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!!
What does the word iatrogenic mean? This term is defined as induced in a patient by a physician’s activity, manner, or therapy. Used especially of a complication of treatment.
Dr. Starfield offers several warnings in interpreting these numbers:
- First, most of the data are derived from studies in hospitalized patients.
- Second, these estimates are for deaths only and do not include negative effects that are associated with disability or discomfort.
- Third, the estimates of death due to error are lower than those in the IOM report.
How does this affect Idaho?
Idaho doesn’t track medical errors. In fact, it took a special
St. Luke’s: Nurse’s Medication Error Resulted in Child Fatality
- St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center
One week after confirming an infant died at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center after receiving the wrong medication, hospital officials said Oct. 2 the 7-month-old died when he received a dose of saline solution infused with potassium phosphate intended for an adult patient.
A family attorney revealed the child’s name as August Elliot.
“One of our nurses prepared the adult patient’s medication solution at the nurse’s station,” the hospital said in the statement. “Sometime later, another nurse mistook that prepared bag as the one to be used for the child, took it into August’s room and administered it. Approximately 10 minutes later, August went into cardiac arrest and we began resuscitation efforts. Thirteen minutes into that effort, another nurse
Hospital officials wrote in a statement: “We missed at least one part of the standard procedure of administering medication,” and they were tightening their internal processes to minimize any chance of human error in the future.
DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE FATAL DOSE WAS GIVEN IN ERROR – The nurse wasn’t charged with a criminal act. (Which brings into question the legislative need to criminalize the behavior of parents who do not intend on doing harm to their children when they choose
http://www.kmvt.com/content/news/Prosecutor-will-not-file-charges-in-infants-death-at-St-Lukes-Hospital-367063101.html
The Twin Falls Times-News reports the findings from the hospital’s investigation have been forwarded to the nation’s top hospital accreditation board and the Twin Falls County Coroner.
