If you spend a little time, it isn't hard to turn up story after story of medical mistakes with serious consequences, especially missed or mistaken diagnoses.
In fact, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) estimates that you will most likely receive at least one incorrect diagnosis at some point in your life. It's probably cold comfort to realize that you're hardly alone and that around 12 million people a year share a similar fate.
As a patient who now knows that they have a form of cancer, you may be frustrated at how long it took to receive your diagnosis. Perhaps you waited several months or even years to find out exactly what was wrong, only to learn that cancer was the cause of your concerns.
In some cases, it's oversights and problems with tests or the quality of care you are receiving that can lead to a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis. Other times, it's just the reality that some cancers are notoriously difficult to detect. Here are some cancers that are hard to diagnose and why they are so easy to miss.
Premise liability laws put the responsibility on store owners to keep their places of business reasonably safe for customers. What happens, however, when a store owner doesn't take that obligation seriously?
People get hurt -- sometimes, quite badly.
More vehicles are being produced every year with automated emergency braking (AEB) systems. Combined with forward collision warning (FCW) systems, the purpose of these automated innovations is to reduce the number of collisions -- and decrease the severity of those that do occur.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that front-to-rear collisions dropped 43% and injuries dropped 64% when FCW and AEB systems are involved.
The death of a high school principal in New Jersey made national headlines because of the situation's tragic nature. The principal had gone under the surgical knife so that he could donate his bone marrow to one of his students, potentially saving that student's life.
Instead, the principal's selfless act turned into a tragedy of epic proportions. The principal died on the operating table. However, it wasn't the bone marrow extraction that caused the principal's death. Instead, an anesthesia error claimed his life.
Depending on your age, you may remember being told as a child, "Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite!" That was more than just a convenient rhyme. It was a holdover acknowledgment that bed bugs were once a serious problem.
Then, suddenly, they weren't. The advent of powerful insecticides pretty much killed bed bugs off and they largely disappeared from the 1950s until the late 1990s. Why? Some of the stronger pesticides were banned, and the few bed bugs that survived developed hardier immune systems. Travel to and from other countries became more common, and those travelers sometimes brought new varieties of bed bugs with them. Now, bed bugs are a problem that can crop up in just about any hotel -- no matter how exclusive.
A concussion is not the most serious traumatic brain injury, but that doesn't mean it won't affect you in a variety of ways. While most symptoms are temporary, a concussion has the potential to cause pain and discomfort well into the future.
Any type of car accident, even one in which both vehicles are moving slowly, can result in you striking your head. This can cause a concussion, with the most common symptoms including:
Florida has been reeling in recent months over the revelations about flaws in the medical system that have allowed disreputable plastic surgeons to operate -- and keep on operating long after they should have been stopped.
For example, two plastic surgeons who are responsible for botching the surgeries on at least 290 female patients are still practicing four years after their malpractice issues came to light.
When you're sick, you rely on your medical providers to give you the best possible care -- and you expect them to be attentive to your condition and needs.
So, what can you do when that doesn't happen? Mistakes do happen in hospitals -- especially when there are shift changes, new trainees on the floor, sleep-deprived doctors and overcrowded waiting rooms. Unfortunately, most patients feel like they're simply at the mercy of the establishment. They wait, hoping someone will eventually focus on their condition long enough to make a difference.
A 21-year-old woman attending the University of Central Florida is in a coma in the local hospital's intensive care unit after falling victim to what may be a drugged driver. Her family says that her injuries are so severe that they do not expect her to live.
A 25-year-old man who allegedly hit her as she walked near her campus has been charged with leaving the scene of the accident and driving under the influence resulting in serious bodily harm -- for now. It's likely that the charges will be upgraded if the young woman passes away.
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