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Sara Knutson
Professor Alicia Bolton
English 101
July 30, 2014

Patients of Death and Injury

In this day and age we have better equipment, better machines then even our
forefathers couldve imagined. We have the chance to use this knowledge that we have
now and mix it with the upgraded medical technology. But the fact remains that there are
still more people dying each year from medical malpractice, prescriptions getting mixed
up, and of course the mixed up test. Our doctors are relying solely on the technology to
tell them what they should already know or would know if they looked after their patients
better. Some dont agree, to some this medical technology has increased the lives of
many, such as the new machines and having interns and student doctors fill in the role for
the doctors for learning experience. I among many dont agree, with all due respect, we
believe that this empowers the doctors to do less of their jobs and is causing the deaths of
many. Its amazing that even with the advancement in medical technology, doctors and
hospitals are still failing patients, and we need to take away the free time that interns and
machines are taking off and make them be more thorough with their patients.
Many believe that with the advancement in technology we should lean back and
relax and let the interns and student doctors have a closer look. That we should allow
them to look after patients, or let them handle the test with barely any assistance because
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its helpful to their education, and the occasional student doctor pouring over a chart to
understand the diagnosis and prognosis well and decide what medication they should
have. What happens when the medication is the wrong one or the paperwork for the test
goes to the wrong patient because they werent paying close enough attention? What
about the patients who complain of pain and nobody believes them? Because thats what
happened to a little boy name Lewis Blackman he had a surgery that they thought went
well and when he complained of pain nobody brought him anything or ran any test until
an actual doctor came in and realized they needed to operate again immediately. His
mother Helen Haskell says while they were waiting for their son to come out of surgery
he shouldnt of had to have in the first place
Someone comes to get us. The doctors want to talk to us. I am fearful that they
will tell us Lewis is brain-damaged. When we got into the room there were five
surgeons in green scrubs. One introduces himself as Dr. Adamson. He is the
doctor on call, we have never seen him before. Dr. Adamson says, we lost
him.(middle of website)
Joe Good, MUSCs general counsel said later, Weve got to do better. This little boy
was 15 he had his whole life ahead of him but the intern and student doctors didnt listen
and never passed on any papers of how much pain he was in and where it was located at.
With the advancement in medical technology today you would think that there
wouldnt be so many untold stories of those personally effected by medical malpractice
but its there. Such as in the book Medicine on Trial: a Handbook With Cases, Laws, and
Documents by Elisabeth Cawthorn where she says, A major theme in recent U.S
medical history has been the sense among medical practitioners that they are under
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siege. (p.g 188) Now that leads us to wonder why they feel that way, if they are doing
their jobs and doing what they are suppose to what is there to be afraid of? Because there
are other stories about how the doctors messed up and they realized just how bad it has
gotten when doctors are being sued for it. In fact there was a little girl named Josie a little
girl, a daughter, and a sister that her mom, Sorrel King, talks about in her book Josies
Story who was burned badly and required surgery. A few days later she was looking ok
until one morning, her mother Sorrel King says
The next morning when I saw Josie I screamed for help. I begged them to let her
Drink. She drank a liter of fluid. They gave her two doses of Naran. She was
Better all she needed was fluids. She would have been fine, she would
have lived, but you gave her methadone when I begged you not to. It was the
combination of the two. If she had gotten the methadone and had not been
dehydrated she would have lived. If she had been dehydrated and not received the
methadone she would have lived. She died from severe dehydration and a
methadone overdose. She died because you would not listen to me!(pg 65)
They had overdosed her on medication because they didnt listen to her mom and it was
wrongfully put into her charts. This isnt the only story, there are millions of stories out
there where the same exact thing happened.
Its time to put into words my own experience of where the advancement in
technology has failed my own child and almost killed her. Not too long ago my daughter
Cheyenne who is four was being sedated for an MRI to check the growth of the tumors
on her brain caused by a rare genetic disorder called Tuberous Sclerosis, which has also
caused tumors on her heart, brain and kidneys, seizures, brain damage, developmental
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delays, Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease, Congenital Rhabdomyoma of
the Heart, and Autism. In the middle of the MRI she woke up and they decided to give
her more gas. This cause respiratory issues, making it hard for her to breathe and causing
her to throw up violently. I was called back there and I struggled to keep the oxygen
mask on her face while they gave her a shot to stop the vomiting and a few minutes later
she was ok but not before they thought she was going to need CPR. Another time was
when she was eleven months and she went into the hospital to start on a special diet for
her seizures and they mixed their orders up and hooked her up to the EEG machine which
caused her so much stress that she had the worst seizure of her life. I was told by the
doctors that she never shouldve had that test done but the orders got mixed up on the
computer and I almost lost my daughter. Our story isnt the only one youll hear about
though, you can easily get the e-book called Wall of Shame: The Untold Story of the
Medical Mistakes that Kill and Injure Millions of Americans and read in the preface
where the authors Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh say
For several years, we cared for a beloved friend who had a life-threatening
medical condition. He received the best care the U.S health system had to offer. It
prolonged his life, and we are profoundly and eternally grateful to the many
doctors, nurses, and others who cared for him. But what the health care system
gave with one hand, it took away with the other. He died because of medical
error.(pg xv of the Preface)
There is always the detrimental effects of doctors not communicating because
they rely on their advanced medical technology, namely their advanced computers, to get
their messages back and forth between the doctors, so that they dont have to stay longer
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after work to have a meeting. Naturally because of this, medications get mixed up or the
patients dont receive them at all. The patients wind up going into withdrawal and the
occasional overdosing if the patients medication suddenly increases without their
knowledge. There is also those multiple mistakes that doctors make where test are getting
put into the system where the rest of the doctors dont check and when you call them to
see what time the test is then they tell you they havent even heard of it before, its
happened with my daughter on multiple occasions. Mostly where the doctors talk about
prescriptions such as Ritalin for her behavior issues, or medication to calm her down at
night and make her sleep when her other medications side effects make it impossible for
her to do so. On one occasion my daughter was suppose to have an ERG, checks the
roadmaps of your eyes, and they never put it into their computers or her electronic chart
to have it done.
Then you get to the truth that doctors rely more on their medical technology than
their actual knowledge. See these are things doctors dont want you to know about
because it is easier to let a machine do the test and pull up the results than the actual
doctors themselves. For instance the blood pressure cuffs they have now and days where
it takes your blood pressure for you, it doesnt always work right especially if you use it
on a little baby who gets worked up over it or one who thrashes their limbs about and
they cant get a proper reading. There is also the machine they have now that takes your
pulse, if you get to upset over it being on your finger your pulse increases. In the article
Doctors Kill One Million Patients Annually Through Surgical Errors, Says Who
Margaret Chun says
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We must never forget the importance of high-quality clinical care, here too, frugal
innovation helps, WHO(World Health Organization) estimated that surgical errors
were killing around one million people worldwide each year. To address this
problem, WHO adopted a simple checklist used by pilots in the airline industry,
one of the safest industries in the world.(par.5)
These doctors rely so much on their advance medical technology that if one of their
machines picks up something the surgery happy doctors are ready to jump up and
perform surgery as quick as possible even if its unnecessary.
To rap this all up, yes we all see differently and we know we wont agree on
everything, namely doctors and their technology. Whether they are doing what they are
suppose to and when they are suppose to. If its them taking care of patients or if its the
interns and student doctors doing it for learning experience and if we should let them do
it. But there are times when one must look around and see the problem. Personally,
especially due to past experiences I truly believe that doctors rely way too much on the
advanced medical technology that they have become adapted to it and Im not sure if
doctors would even be able to function without all of that medical technology. Many
times that same technology that they use is wrong and people are pushed through
unneeded and unnecessary medical procedures because of it. I think its time for them to
step back and really think about what they are doing and focus, not just on the new
technology but also on their own knowledge.


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Works Cited
Cawthorn, Elisabeth A.Medicine on Trial A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents.
California: ABC-CLIO, Inc. pag 188. 2004. Print
Doctors kill One Million Patients Annually Through Surgical Errors, Says WHO. Africa News
Service 22 May 2012:N.Pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.22 July 2014.
Gibson, Rosemary, and Janaraden Prasad Singh. Wall of Silence: The Untold Story of the
Medical Mistakes that Kill and Injure Millions of Americans. Pag xv preface. 2003.
Ebook collection (Ebrary). Web. 16 April. 2013
King, Sorrel. Josies Story A Mothers Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe. New
York: Grove Press, pag 65. 2009.65. Print
Monk, John. How a Hospital Failed a Boy Who Didnt Have to Die. N.Pag. Columbia. The
State, June 16 2002.
Web.









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