(NaturalNews) In 1999 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) awakened the nation with their landmark study "To Err is Human," which found that accidental deaths due to medical errors in hospitals account for as few as 44,000 and as many as 98,000 deaths per year in the U.S. Even at the bottom end of the spectrum, these preventable deaths, which include improper transfusions, surgical injuries, and wrong-site surgery, cause more deaths than either breast cancer or motor-vehicle accidents.
The following year the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that iatrogenic causes of death -- medical errors in hospitals and adverse drug reactions to medications -- total approximately 225,000 deaths annually, making it America`s #3 killer.
Adverse drug reactions
A University of Toronto study found that pharmaceuticals kill more people in the U.S. than motor-vehicle accidents (as reported by the Cancer Cure Foundation). Of the two million hospitalized Americans, who suffered a serious adverse drug reaction within the 12 months prior to the study, 100,000 died from their reaction. Of those deaths, 75% were not due to allergic reactions, but were preventable.
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