10 Shocking medical mistakes
When you're a patient, you trust you're in good hands, but even the best doctor or nurse can make a mistake on you or someone you love. "Mistakes are happening every day in every hospital in the country that we're just not catching," says Dr. Albert Wu, an internist at Johns Hopkins Hospital . Medical errors kill more than a quarter million people every year in the United States and injure millions. Add them all up and "you have probably the third leading cause of death" in the country, says Dr. Peter Pronovost, an anesthesiologist and critical care physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital . The harm is often avoidable, and there are strategies you can use to help doctors and nurses get things right. Surgeons make 'body-part mix-ups' Here's a list of 10 shocking medical mistakes and ways to not become a victim : 1. Mistake: Treating the wrong patient • Cause : Hospital staff fails to verify a patient's identity . • Con