Lights Please

Friday, July 25, is Patient Safety Awareness Day. Okay, if you think this has absolutely NO bearing on you, you're wrong. Every time you enter a hospital you are playing Russian roulette. You could acquire a deadly infection; at least 5 million patients a year contract one of these Super Bugs while in the hospital. 5 Million. 

Or your could be the victim of a surgical error. While that's less likely to occur, it still happens. You could be the victim of a medication error. The most notable incidence of late was with Dennis Quaid's newborn twins.

If you pay attention, you will see medical error stories popping up at an alarming rate all over the web. Medical errors kill 100,000 Americans every single year. That is absolutely horrifying. And it's unacceptable. This is the US of A people, not a third world country. That figure does not include all those patients who survive medical mistakes, many of whom suffer permanent injuries.

I am one of those patients.

I never paid much attention to all those medical mistake stories. I thought they happened in large impersonal inner city hospitals and over-crowded ERs. I never dreamed that I could enter a well-respected local hospital for a relatively simple same day proceedure and leave later that evening with permanent nerve damage. But that's exactly what happened to me.

My injury was completely avoidable, but I suffer the consequences of it every single day. This situation will not change until patients - that's consumers in hospital-speak - demand better care.

So, tomorrow, Americans are asked to turn on their headlights, light a candle or pause for a moment of silence to mark Patient Safety Awareness Day. 

For more information, please visit my new friend Trisha Torrey at Every Patient's Advocate.

 

Comments

[Cait London]

Unfortunately, you're not one of a few, rather one of many. I went to Trisha's site and found great info there. I have a really good friend right now experiencing needless trauma, even tho she did her research and presented all her necessary health info. Makes you wonder about the people who are not skilled at researching, what they are experiencing.