Statistics places 250000 per year - Sour JAMA
the question should read as follows:-
Is it true, doctors are the third leading
cause of death after heart-attack and
cancer in USA,?
Statistics places ratio as 250000 deaths
per year. Source JAMA
oldtimekid2
Favorite Answer
Yes, it's true. The number is a little off and it's a few years old (so it's probably higher than that by now), but it's still true. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/30/doctors-death-part-one.aspx says it was 225,000 (between unneccessary surgeries, medication errors in the hospital, other errors in the hospitals, etc) in 2000.
It specifies:
"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!!"
The JAMA listed these figures (rounded off, but still accurate) at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10904513&dopt=Abstract
I wish it weren't true and that more doctors were more caring and concerned more with the patient's well-being than their paycheck or getting sued... but the numbers from the AMA don't lie.
Anonymous
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm
* Heart disease: 631,636
* Cancer: 559,888
* Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
* Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
* Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
* Diabetes: 72,449
* Alzheimer's disease: 72,432
* Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,326
* Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,344
* Septicemia: 34,234