Medicine's Dirty Little Secret Will Kill You
Depending on who you talk to and when you talk to them, there have been identified some 120 incurable diseases. Keeping in mind that "incurable disease" is code within the medical community for we-don't-understand-how-that-disease-functions, one is always stunned at doctors' attempts -- stabs, if you will -- at trying to figure out some way to abate the 'incurable' disease. After all, how do you fix something that you don't understand?
Well, you don't actually, but under the current system you can experiment around on live, trusting patients and see what you can come up with. You'll get paid whether you succeed or not -- in fact, you'll get paid even if you kill the patient while you're tinkering. You'll get paid too if the patient dies as a result of being exposed to a whole host of incurable communicable diseases found within the hospital environment. You'll get paid even if the patient dies from any of -- or a combination of -- the dangerous prescription drugs that must, by economic necessity, be a part of the experimentation. You'll get paid for wrong assessments, miscommunication to subordinates who, as a result, will administer wrong drugs, dosages, therapies, etc., that will most certainly result in harm.
You'll sue, you say? Good luck. Suing for harm caused by medical error has got to be one the least favorite topics among trial attorneys today. Why? No money in it. The cost of litigation would be horrendous, the payout, if you even win the case, minuscule by comparison. Nine out of ten attorneys won't touch most medical error cases.
Sadly, it's not just the victim of medical error that is harmed. There is the impact on the family, especially if the victim was a caregiver or breadwinner. The emotional trauma from having been dragged through a medical harm incident is lifelong and will haunt loved ones forever. Meanwhile, doctors, hospital administrators, and CEOs of pharmaceutical companies could care less. It's only about the bottom line -- that they got paid for the patient contact.
How stupid could we be to stand by and allow any businessperson to get fully paid for worthless goods or services that actually harm innocent clients, and, at the very same time, put these same business people on a pedestal, and allow them to thrive, prosper and, most importantly, control the powers-that-be so that they can continue their practice uninterrupted?
By now, we've discovered that ignoring this issue won't make it go away. So, what actionable options are available to help turn this issue around?
Unfortunately, these days, there is nothing like the bonk on the head that litigation provides. There needs to be a serious class action legal effort against one or various of Medicine, Inc.'s players. But since it seems to be all about the money -- and not the best interests or safety of the public -- its difficult to envision how exactly this would take place. It seems that our esteemed law grads of late are more worried about lifestyle accouterments than substantive social issues.
Be that as it may, there needs to be, at very least, a revamping of federal legislation that would: 1) force doctors, hospitals and healthcare providers to archive, (with independent oversight) in a central database, all medical harm incidents, 2) force doctors to give a clear, accurate and detailed description of cause of death on a death certificate, 3) force pharmaceutical companies to provide exhaustive proof of the fully independent nature of their pre-release drug trials, 4) prevent doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and other healthcare providers from getting paid when the patient has received nothing of value as a result of patient contact, and to provide for penalties when harm is done. Write a note to your representatives in Washington.
The era of 'politically correct' discourse has bankrupted us and it's time to get back to real. It's time to actually do something. People are needlessly dying at the hands of those they'd trusted most for remediation. Good, innocent people. Medical error is the third leading cause of death in America. Shouldn't that be enough to incite change?
R. Cameron Bryce
