Re: Kids.....

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: November 16, 2008 10:03:39 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] re: Kids.....

[Note:  This item comes from reader John Quarterman.  DLH]

Subject: RE: [Dewayne-Net] re: Kids.....Adults.....
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 05:48:27 -0500
To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
From: "John S. Quarterman" <jsq () quarterman org>
Cc: "'Tom Williams'" <Tom () AirNetworking com>, "Bob Frankston" <Bob19-0501 () bobf frankston com 
>


> From: "Bob Frankston" <Bob19-0501 () bobf frankston com>
> Date: November 15, 2008 5:31:13 PM PST
> To: "'Dewayne Hendricks'" <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Cc: "'Tom Williams'" <Tom () AirNetworking com>
> Subject: RE: [Dewayne-Net] re: Kids.....Adults.....
>
> ...
>
> There are two different issues. One is that it is reasonable to ask
> for accommodations but such opportunities get always get stretched.
> Are you saying that the nurse is now out there misreading bottles?

I sure wouldn't be surprised.

My stepmother is in a nursing home.  She can't take solid pills (long  
story).
Again and again nurses bring them to her whole, and family have to  
tell them
to grind them up.  The hospital was no better on this point.

My father had diabetes.  Every hospital he was in towards the end had
difficulty with providing him with a diet free of too many sweets
yet enough to keep his blood sugar up.  I went away for a day and
came back to find him in a diabetic coma.  The nurse yelled in his
ear, and he made a grunt and she said "See?  He's OK!"  (I gave him
a spoonful of honey to bring him out of it and had a long talk with
the doctor and the head nurse.)

My mother already had lung problems.  The nurses put water in her glass
with their bare hands and gave her pneumonia.

Medical malpractice just goes on and on.  Sure, a lot of it is the  
system.
Nurse shifts don't communicate simple matters.  But that's largely  
because
many nurses just don't read the charts.

And don't get me started on multiple doctors prescribing drugs without
bothering to look at what other doctors already prescribed, or ignoring
side effects even when they're pointed out, or prescribing drugs such
as statens for blood pressure when diet and exercise often can solve
the same problem with fewer side effects.

Is this a medical system problem?  For sure.

Is iatrogenic illness solely a U.S. problem?  No:

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s100865.htm

Is it a serious problem?  One study shows 11% iatrogenic death rate
in a dept. of internal medicine:

< http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0953620507001094>

A study from 2000 estimates 98,000 deaths a year in the U.S. from  
iatrogenic causes:

< http://www.deathreference.com/Ho-Ka/Iatrogenic-Illness.html>

"This number slightly exceeds the combined total of those killed in
one year by motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297),
and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, 16,516)."

Should we worry about the educational system making it worse?

Depends on how many more people we want to get sick or die  
unnecessarily.

A bit of attention to this problem would save a lot more lives than the
many billions wasted in Iraq or by DHS.

While we're at it, maybe we can do something about the influence of
big pharma over the medical system and big agro over the food system.
Then maybe we'd be able to reduce the epidemic of diabetes (incidence
doubled from 1992 to 2002; tripled since 1980)

< http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/incidence/fig1.htm>

caused by the combination of those two things.  That would also save a  
lot
more lives than the "war on terror".

If we had an educational system that taught children to think,
maybe they'd fall for food and drug marketing scams less easily.

-jsq
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