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IATROGENY
IATROGENOCIDE?
by Alan R. Yurko
The Journal of
Degenerative Disease,
February/March 2002: 3(3rd); pages 37-38
Iatrogeny as defined by
Mosbys
Medical Dictionary 5th
Ed. 1998, states: IATROGENIC [Gk., iatros,
physician, genein, to produce], caused by
treatment or diagnostic procedures. An
iatrogenic disorder is a condition caused by
medical personnel or procedures or through
exposure to the environment of a health care
facility, including fears instilled in
patients by remarks or questions of
examining physicians. See also: 'nosocomial',
(iatrogenesis, iatrogeny, n.)
It is well known that
many new drugs, devices, surgeries and
treatments are touted as miracles of modern
medicine, and albeit this article does not
argue this, this writer believes that much
of this has two sides, possibly two hundred.
This article focuses on a dark side. Caveat
Emptor. Buyer Beware.
95% of the people I
know are victims of iatrogeny--including
myself. My honor and respect is commanded
for the many of these people who are working
on one way or another to address iatrogeny.
A generation ago, people trusted their
doctors blindly and implicitly. There seemed
to be a personal bond with one's doctor
which has eroded with the emphasis on
medicine as a business, CPT codes, HMOs and
iatrogeny, among other things. The health
care market place is not kind and people
have lost trust. Iatrogeny plays a large and
ugly role in this.
A recent study
published in The Joumal of The American
Medical Association 2000:284:94); by
Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH showed that in
the US, this data was found:
12,000 deaths/year from
unnecessary surgery
7,000 deaths/year from
medication errors in hospitals
20,000 deaths/year from
other errors in hospitals
80,000 deaths/year from
nosocomial infections in hospitals
106,000 deaths/year
from adverse effects of medications
This totals 225,000 deaths per year from
iatrogenic causes, placing iatrogeny as the
third leading cause of death in the US,
second only to heart disease and cancer. The
scary part is that this does not include
disabilities and disorders, just deaths in
hospitalized patients. In any event, when
one ponders that more than four times as
many people die in one year from doctors'
mistakes than died in the entire Vietnam
War, one is aghast at why this information
isn't making headlines or why huge think
tanks funded by medico-political interests
haven't formed. We have the American Heart
Association to address heart disease,
Richard Nixon's "War on Cancer", and even
groups like "Mothers Against Drunk Driving",
and organizations to address almost every
sort of issue, save iatrogeny. My guess is
that medico-politics have not figured out a
way to capitalize off of all these deaths
and disorders ... yet. There is, however, a
small "experts" consortium that does address
iatrogeny in the journals, but such studies
are few and far between. Funding such
studies doesn't appear to be sound business
practice.
Iatrogeny is not exclusive to the US. The
British Medical Journal stated on 18
March 2000 that "In Australia, medical error
results is an many as 18,000 unnecessary
deaths, and more than 50,000 patients become
disabled every year." Studies released in
the last ten years show similar trends in
the UK, Canada and New Zealand. New Zealand
has a larae percentage ratio of adverse drug
reactions comparable to the US. It should be
noted that the US and New Zealand are the
only countries that allow aggressive
pharmaceutical drug advertisements.
One very interesting
statistic I came across which deserves
mention are deaths attributed to addictive
drugs in the UK between 1990 and 1995:
Benzodiazepines -
1,810
Methadone - 676
Heroin - 291
This emphasizes my point that millions of
dollars and great concern through
organizations and associations are given to
the deaths and disablements from myriad
causes except iatrogeny. Here we have two
legal prescription drugs causing more deaths
each, than Heroin.
Many can pooh-pooh these statistics and
claim that to err is human, etc., however
there comes a point when one must look
deeper when the facts and statistics are too
overwhelming to ignore. Those in power have
choices to make. They can rationalize, deny
or take responsible action. The latter seems
to be slow in genesis. There has been much
denial and silence from the allopathic
medical industrial complex. Since medicine
has become an arm of business and since
business and politics are such passionate
bedfellows, one must look at some other
interesting facts.
Drug companies spend huge fortunes for
political influence, in fact lobbying for
pharmaceutical interests in the first half
of 2000 reached $42.9 million (USD); and it
was estimated that $230 million (USD) would
be spent during the election. George Bush
welcomed $1.7 million (USD) from drug
companies just for his inauguration
celebrations! (British Medical Journal 27
January 2001). Drug companies are a business
and have always been a business. They do not
give such an investment without an expected
return with profits. Perhaps this is why
officials turn a blind eye to the fact that
doctors and hospitals are responsible for
nearly a quarter-million deaths in the US
per year. Or perhaps this is why the
pharmaceutical companies manufacture
pesticides and chemicals that cause cancer
and disease and then manufacture drugs to
treat diseases they cause that can cause
even more disorders to create a market for
more drugs--and more profit. A very
lucrative cycle. Perhaps this is why funding
for disease research successfully diverts
attention from the “pharmocartels” own
carcinogenic and deadly products. One need
not look too hard for reasons why doctors'
and hospitals' mistakes are the third
leading cause of death in America, with no
end in sight.
Many believe that Barbara Starfield's study
cited earlier is just the tip of the
iceberg. After all, the study only looked at
hospitalized patients. What of the in home
and outpatient errors? There are more people
to consider in these groups, and certainly
more iatrogeny. Could it be that iatrogeny
is the leading cause of death in the US? The
World? As startling and unsupported as that
sounds, it may very well be true. At any
rate, the iatrogenic holocaust makes World
War II deaths pale in comparison. Yet only
patronizing and minimal attempts to
recognize and correct iatrogeny have been
made.
Murder Or Mistake?
The fine line between murder or mistake is a
hot potato. If you saw your neighbors being
killed one by one and/or en masse, yet did
nothing about it, or took up for the
killers, you could be guilty of "accessory
to murder" or "accessory to murder after the
fact". Many analogies and ethical
juxtapositions could be generated in such a
debate. One could even make argument for a
global elitist plan at population control
allowing iatrogeny to gain such momentum.
Regardless of etiology, iatrogeny is real.
It is rampant and far from being under
control. By making iatrogeny, through
semantics, sound as it is an infectious
disease beyond the control of physicians and
hospitals, we allow the medical profession
and pharmaceutical cartels to distance
themselves from responsibility and relieve
them from the culpability of what mirrors
negligent homicide.
It would be humanly impossible to eliminate
genuine mistakes entirely. The problem is
that, "How many times does a mistake happen
until it's not just a mistake anymore, but
negligence?" This author believes that
225,000 deaths every year may be an example
of when mistakes cross over to the darkness
of negligence. If so, then we are witnessing
the greatest holocaust to befall mankind
ever.
In
closing, I leave you with my own definition
of a freshly coined word.
Iatrogenocide - [Gk, iatros, physician,
genein, to produce, cide, killing] The
extermination of a population in a
systematic fashion through medical error.
*For
more information on iatrogeny, contact me at
freeyurko
Bibliography:
WORLD HEALTH REPORT
2000,
Available at: http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/report.htm.
Leape, L., Unnecessary Surgery, Annu.Rev.
Pub. Health. 1992;l 3:363-383.
Starfield, B., Is U.S. Health Really the
Best in the World? Jama 2000:284:(4).
Bagnall, G., Will the Accused Please Rise!
Healthy Options, 2001:November:9-11.
Kohn, L., ed., Corrigan,J., ed., Donaldson,
M., ed., To Err is Human: Building a Safer
Health System. Washington, DC, National
Academy Press; 1999.
Weingart, S.N., Wilson, R.M., Gibbard, R.W.,
Harrison, B., Epidemiology and Medical
Error. BMJ 2000;320:774-777.
Evans, R., Roos, N., What is right about the
Canadian Health System? Milibank Quarterly
1999; 77:393-399.
Anderson, G., Poullier, J.-P., Health
Spending, Access and Outcomes: Trends in
Industrialised Countries.
New York, NY: The Commonwealth Fund 1999.
The New Zealand Herald, 14 September, 1990.
Courtesy of Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz
and Tetrahedron
Publishing Group
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See also:
http://www.miracle6.com
http://www.healingcelebrations.com
http://www.americanreddoublecross.com
http://www.prophecyandpreparedness.com
http://www.tetrahedron.org
http://www.healingcelebrations.com
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