Book Review: Deadly Errors

Deadly Errors 

This book, originally out in 2005, is a great read. Now released in eBook, and all that jazz, it is easily accessible. Published by Astor and Blue, they seem to carry a lot of great mysteries, with several physicians in their stable of writers.

A mystery, I found the prologue a bit confusing, and yet, to quote my hubby, "Soon all will be revealed!" It deals with something that is a huge problem on this continent, medical patient-care errors. There is much written and posted about preventing errors. (You can read more on my healthcare blog:
20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors)

Wyler has 
6 books out!

This author is a "neurosurgeon pioneer," according to his bio. This is evident in the detail of the book. He knows the ins and outs of a hospital, especially when speed and stealth are of import! The hero, Dr. Tyler Matthews, experiences trials and tribulations, with a great plot that had me sitting reading all afternoon! He retired from his profession in 2007 to write full-time. You can tell that he loves the genre, as with any good writer, he understands the skill and has mastered his writing craft.

You can read an excerpt here, but, like this well-read author, I've read a fair number of mysteries, and you should just jump into this one!

Re: Medical Errors From the author: 

In November 1999, the Institute of Medicine (USA) concluded a study entitled "To Err Is Human: Building A Safer Health System". It focused attention on the issue of medical errors and patient safety by reporting that as many as 44,000 to 98,000 people die in hospitals each year from preventable medical errors. This makes medical errors this country's eighth leading cause of death — higher than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. About 7,000 people per year were estimated (at that time) to die from medication errors alone. In spite of efforts by health care providers to decrease the rate of these preventable errors, they are still a cause of morbidity and mortality.  

Our Toronto ER physician, Dr. Brian Goldman, is calling up Canadian doctors to come to terms with errors. (You can view Dr. Brian's TED Talk here.) This is a problem in the US, where their litigious society depends upon lawsuits in order for patients to get recompense. It's not the same in Canada, where we have universal healthcare.
Patients must be proactive in this day and age of large hospitals and complicated healthcare practices. We've been confronting cancer for more than a year, and it pays to make notes, ask and prepare questions, and do a certain amount of research.