Reply #10: And here's a site that exposes the lies on that site. [View All]

3. In deriving his numbers on "bad outcomes", Mr. Null adds all types of adverse outcomes together without considering (either through ignorance or intent) that many of these are not due to medical error or other failure but are merely the natural consequences of the disease or injury. Infection, for instance, is usually not due to medical error but is a natural risk of surgery, injury and disease. The question NOT asked is this: "How many of these adverse outcomes would have occurred WITHOUT medical intervention." Let me give some examples.

Example 1: A patient develops a skin infection following surgery for an inflamed appendix. This infection is treated with antibiotics and resolves over 7 - 10 days. This would be reported as a post-operative infection on the hospital statistics. However, without surgical intervention, the patient would likely have died in 7 - 14 days of a ruptured appendix and overwhelming peritonitis - another sort of infection.

Example 2: A patient comes to the hospital with chest pain - the diagnosis is myocardial infarction ("heart attack") and he is admitted to the ICU. Two hours later, he dies of heart failure. This is reported as an in-hospital death. He almost certainly would have died at home without medical intervention, but his death is "credited" to the hospital because that is where he died.

Example 3: A patient goes to her doctor's office complaining of a severe sore throat and gets a prescription for an antibiotic. Shortly after taking the first capsule, she develops a rash. In the emergency room, she is diagnosed with a mild allergic reaction to the antibiotic and sent home with a different antibiotic. This is reported as an adverse drug reaction(ADR).