an e-mail sent to me,
DOCTORS vs GUNS



Check out these statistics:

Doctors:
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physicians 0.171.

[ Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.]

Now think about this:


Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S.S. 80,000,000. (Yes, that's
80 million.)
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is
1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.

[ Statistics courtesy of FBI.]

So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more
dangerous
than gun owners.

Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE
DOCTOR.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must BAN
DOCTOR'S
before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!

Out of concern for the public at large,I have withheld the
statistics on
[LAWYER'S ] for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek
medical attention.

Signed,
A concerned citizen

 

i aint giving up my guns,and i aint giving up my doctor.......where do i sign

my last doctor helped me pass my last kidney stone...........to me he was the best thing since sliced bread.....then the bill came

 

This e-mail spam never dies and people never check the figures before posting it ...

 

OK,I'll bite,what are the real figure's.

 

Medical Errors - A leading cause of Death

The JOURNAL of the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (JAMA) Vol 284, No 4, July 26th 2000 article written by Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, shows that medical errors may be the third leading cause of death in the United States.

The report apparently shows there are 2,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery; 7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals; 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals; 80,000 deaths/year from infections in hospitals; 106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medications - these total up to 225,000 deaths per year in the US from iatrogenic causes which ranks these deaths as the # 3 killer. Iatrogenic is a term used when a patient dies as a direct result of treatments by a physician, whether it is from misdiagnosis of the ailment or from adverse drug reactions used to treat the illness.

USATODAY.com - Medical miscalculation creates doctor shortage

Posted 3/2/2005

The nation now has about 800,000 active physicians, ....


I have a right to | BBC World Service

The United States has the largest number of guns in private hands of any country in the world with 60 million people owning a combined arsenal of over 200 million firearms.

System tracks gun deaths: Details are being collected on murders, suicides in the U.S.

Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot to death in murders, suicides, and accidents.

-------------------------------------------------------------

So,

Doctors:

225,000 deaths / 800,000 doctors = 0.28 deaths per doctor

Guns:

30,000 deaths / 200-million guns = 0.00015 deaths per gun.

 

I will stick to my guns also.

 

I personally believe doctors sevices should have a "labor guide" for prices of procedures and whatnot. These clowns have an unregulated market that they can regulate on thier own. Money down? They just jack up prices. Doing ok right now? They still make it unreasonable. It's like theft. They charge outrageous rates to do things just because they know that insurance will pay for it. The other 5-10% of peeps who have no coverage they can just have fun ruining thier credit/lives since they charge so much for everything. 500% markup on a medication is rediculous. They are rediculous. 90% of them are quacks anyway, Veteranarians require more schooling.

 

I will stick with my 12 gauge and 30.06. Get em at short range and long range.

 

In my opinion, statistics on deaths caused by medical errors don't say a whole lot because no one considers the numbers of deaths that would occur without doctors. What do you all suggest then; get rid of doctors completely? Doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

 

This is my chance to be errational but I hate doctor's(no not scared)HATE and I know many of you will never believe or understand that there has been a few times in my life with my exsperiance in livestock that I have performed procedures on myself. This sounds nuts but in spite of how it sounds I use as much care as possible with getting things clean and dispite the old cowboy movies where you took a stiff drink of whiskey before you began and doused the injury with same that was left out of the procedure. I wanted my mind clear.

I opperated on the back of my left hand above the wrist for an infection I received from a bad dog bite 6 months before while pulling porcupine needles out my dog after he worked for 20 minutes to make it naked and little else.
About 3 weeks afterwards a lump showed up on the back of my hand that got bigger until it was the size of a half dollar, I did get the problem fixed for over 5 years and yes my left hand works as I do not use the right hand to push q's,a's, and such on my keyboard. LOL

There has been other times (even had my wife help me as I needed one more hand) but not many as I' am still in good health as far as I can tell, I can understand this is hard to believe and mostly impossible by most standards and I' am sure my wife has wished that more than once and has tried to talk me into going to a doctor but I refuse.

I had my first bad exsperiance with doctors when I was 17 when my grandfather passed away. I do not blame them nor did they do wrong except to lie about the condition and perform needless procedures only to send him home to die because of social security issues we were told. Even at 17 I was no dummy, I already had a good idea where things were going and in spite of missing him I was so thankful he never lived to make it to town that afternoon.

Since then I have dealt with them with other family members that have gone before me and each and every time I started out letting them know I wanted and demanded only the truth and have some knowledge and the power to reason. I absolutely will not tolerate sugar coating!

I have ranted too much and made this boring, I' am sorry but even though my wife and child have insurance I do not and will not as I cannot stomach the cost of insurance and their loopholes they sneak threw so for me with what I' am I will go to a doctor if I cant fix and I' am dying from something that can be fixed within reason, I do know time tells all but I cannot afford nor will I put the ranch on an auction block to pursue a problem with high exspence with risky results. No one lives forever and that goes for me too.

 

Not really taking sides here, but there are a lot of other issues.
1. Weapons
I'm all for the right to own weapons -- and all for anything that would discourage folks from using them against others.

2. Doc statistics
A lot of the stats quoted from the reputable sources are not necessarily doctor related
- medication errors usually means that the hospital staff dispensed the wrong med
- other errors in hospitals -- another category generally related to hospital staff
- same thing for infections
There are more issues with the rest of the list.

doctors are human -- and they make mistakes. Some are better than others -- just like mechanics. And they have to contend with a few issues
such as :
- insurance companies trying to keep them from spendy procedures
- lawyers suing them if they don't do some spendy procedures

All in all, I guess I'd vote to keep guns and doctors.

 

My guns never hurt me but my old doctor damn near killed me.

 

We have had a few "horse doctors" here too, the problem is I wouldn't take a horse to them much less myself.

I have seen and do know doctors fair out very well with insurance companies, the procedure they preform may not pay out enough so they add other needless procedures and tests to take up the slack, after that what the insurance companies dont pay, you get stuck with.

I don't see many doctors who do not have a nice houses and cars for being nice or stupid.

 

its sad that doctors are ridiculously expensive,and make serious mistakes(partly why i dont have one)..and as for guns,this country obviously has issues when comparing the amount of gun deaths to other countries...but as much as i cant stand republicans i still agree with them on the gun issue