| Popis: |
Statistically, you are safer as a soldier fighting in a war zone than you are in a modern American hospital. During the deadliest year of the Iraq war, in the midst of the “Surge” in 2007, when the United States had approximately 160,000 “boots on the ground,” the United States suffered a loss of 904 service personnel [1]. During the same time period, approximately 35.1 million Americans sought medical treatment in US hospitals, and of that number, researchers estimate that some 400,000 died of “preventable” errors [2]. This number does not include those who died from their injuries, from trauma, or so-called “natural” causes such as heart disease, stroke, or cancer while under hospital care. Crunching the numbers, 1 out of every 200 servicemen and women deployed to Iraq during the Surge stood a chance of dying. By comparison, just over 1 out of every 100 people visiting a US hospital was at risk of dying because of a preventable error. Put bluntly, your chance of dying in an American hospital due to an error committed by hospital staff was greater than dying as a soldier in the deadliest year of the Iraq war. |
