Thread: guns and doctors

Yeah, Mark Twain said,"There are lies, there are damn lies, and then there are statistics."

Originally Posted by honedright

Even weirder that an inanimate object like a gun get's most, if not all, of the blame while, as you point out, a thinking, breathing, decision making individual could be responsible for less.

Yeah, I can see the banners now: "Guns don't kill people, Doctors kill people." BTW, I'm not anti-gun ownership. I think the 2nd Amendment does grant each and every person the right to own weapons to defend themselves, their family, and their property.
Everyone knows that you are more likely to get sick in hospitals.
I'd like to refer to WillN's post: there are the good and bad in every profession. I agree. But not everyone is always at the top of their game all the time, and honest mistakes do sometimes happen.

I don't have time, or I'd do it (on my way to the office), but someone might check the stats on rates of iatrogenic morbidity and mortality.

Fun with Statistics;
700,000 Doctors. Each one attends to an average of 10 patients a day, 220 days per year. 120K deaths per year.
I think that comes to about .000077 percent. (not real good with math)


Now what?

PS. how many more deaths by guns would there be had the DOCTORS not saved the GSW victim?

Mv --
Don't get me wrong, I greatly respect all medical professionals.

Good Gosh People!!

If you took away all the guns - there would be maybe a couple... hell maybe even a hundred preventable deaths to have to worry about!

Take away Medical doctors, and there would be millions of preventable deaths to account for...

Wow! Silly comparison.

David --
And when a medical professional causes a death should their culpability be limited by law in any way? That is what the MI State Legislature is attempting to enact into law with their pending legislation.

Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

It's funny you should write that. Here in MI there is pending legislation regarding decreasing doctor's culpability regarding medical malpractice lawsuits. WEIRD!

Well "in theory," reducing malpractice suits would make healthcare more affordable. So that I agree with. As for what exactly they are considering - I don't know. I don't know enough about what's going on in your state bro

Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

David --
And when a medical professional causes a death should their culpability be limited by law in any way? That is what the MI State Legislature is attempting to enact into law with their pending legislation.

As for a sweeping statement like should their culpability be reduced when death occurs... well of course not. But if they have dumb laws that says that a doc is legally liable if a he/she puts on a latex turnkey on a patient who is allergic in a triage situation and that person dies due to complications - absolutely!!

David --
My largest concern with this legislation is how it interacts with Michigan's "Good Samaritan" law, which provides a large degree of immunity to medical professionals who provide medical services when they have no clear duty to do so, e.g. a nurse on his/her way home from work who witnesses an auto accident and stops to render first aid assistance. I can easily envision multiple scenarios and twice that many differing outcomes. Like I said, I'm interested in the interaction between the current law and the proposed legislation.

Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

Mv --
Don't get me wrong, I greatly respect all medical professionals.

I never thought otherwise, just having some fun is all.