Tag: hemingway

Medical Nemesis Revisited: Physician-Caused Anger, Despair & Death

26
Regaining power over our own health was the goal of Ivan Illich’s 1976 book Medical Nemesis, which detailed an epidemic of physician-caused death and illness. This epidemic continues, and so does an epidemic of physician-caused anger, despair and crazy-appearing behaviors. In 2013, the Journal of Patient Safety reported that the ā€œtrue number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients is estimated at more than 400,000 per year,ā€ making it the third leading cause of death in the United States It is especially drug use errors, communication failures and diagnostic errors that result in another medical nemesis: They can make us appear—and sometimes feel—like we’re ā€œcrazy.ā€