| Dr. Jai Maharaj 2004-11-03, 7:12 pm |
| Modern Health Care System is the Leading Cause of Death, Part V
Forwarded message from fidyl@yahoo.com
[ Subject: Modern Health Care System is the Leading Cause of Death, Part V
[ From: fidyl@yahoo.com
[ Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004
Modern Health Care System is the Leading Cause of Death, Part V
By Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio
MD,
Dorothy Smith PhD
http://www.mercola.com/2004/jul/24/healthcare_death.htm
Cesarean Section
In 1983, 809,000 cesarean sections (21 percent of live births) were
performed, making it the most common obstetric and gynecologic
(OB/GYN) surgical procedure. The second most common OB/GYN operation
was hysterectomy (673,000), and diagnostic dilation and curettage of
the uterus (632,000) was third. In 1983, OB/GYN operations
represented 23 percent of all surgery completed in this country.104
In 2001, Cesarean section is still the most common OB/GYN surgical
procedure. Approximately 4 million births occur annually, with a 24
percent C-Section rate, i.e., 960,000 operations. In the Netherlands
only eight percent of babies are delivered by Cesarean section.
Assuming human babies are similar in the United States and in the
Netherlands, we are performing 640,000 unnecessary C-Sections in the
United States with its three to four times higher mortality and 20
times greater morbidity than vaginal delivery.105
The cesarean section rate was only 4.5 percent in the United States
in 1965. By 1986 it had climbed to 24.1 percent. The author states
that obviously an "uncontrolled pandemic of medically unnecessary
cesarean births is occurring."106 VanHam reported, in a high-risk
population undergoing cesarean section, a:
Cesarean section postpartum hemorrhage rate of 7 percent
Hematoma formation rate of 3.5 percent
Urinary tract infection rate of 3 percent
Combined postoperative morbidity rate of 35.7 percent 107
Never Enough Studies
Scientists used the excuse that there were never enough studies
revealing the dangers of DDT and other dangerous pesticides to ban
them. They also used this excuse around the issue of tobacco,
claiming that more studies were needed before they could be certain
that tobacco really caused lung cancer. Even the American Medical
Association (AMA) was complicit in suppressing results of tobacco
research. In 1964, the Surgeon General's report condemned smoking,
however the AMA refused to endorse it. What was their reason? They
needed more research. Actually what they really wanted was more money
and they got it from a consortium of tobacco companies who
paid the AMA $18 million over the next nine years, during which the
AMA said nothing about the dangers of smoking.108
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), "after
careful consideration of the extent to which cigarettes were used by
physicians in practice," began accepting tobacco advertisements and
money in 1933. State journals such as the New York State Journal of
Medicine also began to run Chesterfield ads claiming that cigarettes
are, "Just as pure as the water you drink … and practically untouched
by human hands."
In 1948, JAMA argued "more can be said in behalf of smoking as a form
of escape from tension than against it … there does not seem to be
any preponderance of evidence that would indicate the abolition of
the use of tobacco as a substance contrary to the public health."109
Today, scientists continue to use the excuse that they need more
studies before they will lend their support to restrict the
inordinate use of drugs.
Overview of Statistical Tables and Figures
Adverse Drug Reactions
The Lazarou study 1 was based on statistical analysis of 33 million
U.S. hospital admissions in 1994. Hospital records for prescribed
medications were analyzed with the following results:
The number of serious injuries due to prescribed drugs was 2.2
million
2.1 percent of in-patients experienced a serious adverse drug
reaction
4.7 percent of all hospital admissions were due to a serious adverse
drug reaction
Fatal adverse drug reactions occurred in 0.19 percent of in-patients
and 0.13 percent of admissions.
The authors concluded that a projected 106,000 deaths occur annually
due to adverse drug reactions.
We used a cost analysis from a 2000 study in which the increase in
hospitalization costs per patient suffering an adverse drug reaction
was $5,483. Therefore, costs for the Lazarou study's 2.2 million
patients with serious drug reactions amounted $12 billion.1,49
Serious adverse drug reactions commonly emerge after Food and Drug
Administration approval. The safety of new agents cannot be known
with certainty until a drug has been on the market for many years.110
Bedsores
Over 1 million people develop bedsores in U.S. hospitals every year.
It's a tremendous burden to patients and family, and a $55-billion
health care burden.7 Bedsores are preventable with proper nursing
care. It is true that 50 percent of those affected are in a
vulnerable age group of over 70. In the elderly bedsores carry a
four-fold increase in the rate of death.
The mortality rate in hospitals for patients with bedsores is between
23 percent and 37 percent.8 Even if we just take the 50 percent of
people over 70 with bedsores and the lowest mortality at 23 percent,
that gives us a death rate due to bedsores of 115,000. Critics will
say that it was the disease or advanced age that killed the patient,
not the bedsore, but our argument is that an early death, by denying
proper care, deserves to be counted. It is only after counting these
unnecessary deaths that we can then turn our attention to fixing the
problem.
Malnutrition in Nursing Homes
The General Accounting Office (GAO), a special investigative branch
of Congress, gave citations to 20 percent of the nation's 17,000
nursing homes for violations between July 2000 and January 2002. Many
violations involved serious physical injury and death.111
A report from the Coalition for Nursing Home Reform states that at
least one-third of the nation's 1.6 million nursing home residents
may suffer from malnutrition and dehydration, which hastens their
death. The report calls for adequate nursing staff to help feed
patients who aren't able to manage a food tray by themselves.11
It is difficult to place a mortality rate on malnutrition and
dehydration. This Coalition report states that malnourished
residents, compared with well-nourished hospitalized nursing
home residents, have a five-fold increase in mortality when they are
admitted to hospital. So, if we take one-third of the 1.6 million
nursing home residents who are malnourished and multiply that by a
mortality rate of 20 percent,8,14 we find 108,800 premature deaths
due to malnutrition in nursing homes.
Nosocomial Infections
The rate of nosocomial [originating or taking place in a hospital]
infections per 1,000 patient days has increased 36 percent--from 7.2
in 1975 to 9.8 in 1995. Reports from more than 270 U.S. hospitals
showed that the nosocomial infection rate itself had remained stable
over the previous 20 years with approximately five to six
hospital-acquired infections occurring per 100 admissions, which is a
rate of 5 percent to 6 percent.
However, because of progressively shorter inpatient stays and the
increasing number of admissions, the actual number of infections
increased.
It is estimated that in 1995, nosocomial infections cost $4.5 billion
and contributed to more than 88,000 deaths--one death every six
minutes.9
The 2003 incidence of nosocomial mortality is quite probably higher
than in 1995 because of the tremendous increase in
antibiotic-resistant organisms.
Morbidity and Mortality Report found that nosocomial infections cost
$5 billion annually in 1999.10 This is a $0.5 billion increase in
four years.
The present cost of nosocomial infections might now be in the order
of $5.5 billion.
Outpatient Iatrogenesis
Dr. Barbara Starfield in a 2000 JAMA paper presents us with
well-documented facts that are both shocking and unassailable.12
The U.S. ranks twelfth out of 13 countries in a total of 16 health
indicators. Japan, Sweden, and Canada were first, second, and third.
More than 40 million people have no health insurance.
20 percent to 30 percent of patients receive contraindicated care.
Dr. Starfield warns that one cause of medical mistakes is the overuse
of technology, which may create a "cascade effect" leading to more
treatment.
She urges the use of ICD (International Classification of Diseases)
codes that have designations called: "Drugs, Medicinal, and
Biological Substances Causing Adverse Effects in Therapeutic Use" and
"Complications of Surgical and Medical Care" to help doctors quantify
and recognize the magnitude of the medical error problem. Starfield
says that, at present, deaths actually due to medical error are
likely to be coded according to some other cause of death.
She concludes that against the backdrop of our abysmal health report
card compared to the rest of the Westernized countries, we should
recognize that the harmful effects of health care interventions
account for a substantial proportion of our excess deaths.
Starfield cites Weingart's 2000 article, "Epidemiology of Medical
Error" on outpatient iatrogenesis. And Weingart, in turn, cites
several authors and provides statistics showing that between 4
percent to 18 percent of consecutive patients in outpatient settings
suffer an iatrogenic event leading to 112:
116 million extra physician visits
77 million extra prescriptions
17 million emergency department visits
8 million hospitalizations
3 million long-term admissions
199,000 additional deaths
$77 billion in extra costs
Unnecessary Surgeries
There are 12,000 deaths per year from unnecessary surgeries. However,
results from the few studies that have measured unnecessary surgery
directly indicate that for some highly controversial operations, the
fraction that are unwarranted could be as high as 30 percent.74
It's a Global Issue
A survey published in the Journal of Health Affairs pointed out that
between 18 percent and 28 percent of people who were recently ill had
suffered from a medical or drug error in the previous two years. The
study surveyed 750 recently-ill adults in five different countries.
The breakdown by country showed:
18 percent of those in Britain
25 percent in Canada
23 percent in Australia
23 percent in New Zealand
The highest number was in the U.S. at 28 percent 113
Health Insurance
A recent finding by the Institute of Medicine is that the 41 million
Americans without health insurance have consistently worse clinical
outcomes than those who are insured, and are at increased risk for
dying prematurely.114
Insurance Fraud
When doctors bill for services they do not render, advise unnecessary
tests, or screen everyone for a rare condition, they are committing
insurance fraud. The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) gave a 1998
figure of $12 billion lost to fraudulent or unnecessary claims, and
reclaimed $480 million in judgments in that year. In 2001, the
federal government won or negotiated more than $1.7 billion in
judgments, settlements, and administrative impositions in health care
fraud cases and proceedings.115
Warehousing Our Elders
It is only fitting that we end this report with acknowledgement of
our elders. The moral and ethical fiber of society can be judged by
the way it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members. Some
cultures honor and respect the wisdom of their elders, keeping them
at home--the better to continue participation in their community.
However, American nursing homes, where millions of our elders die,
represent the pinnacle of social isolation and medical abuse.
End of forwarded message from fidyl@yahoo.com
Jai Maharaj
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The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so send
peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in
law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.
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