I live in a small town in Czechia where Soviet soldiers left two civilian persons dead during the invasion of Czechoslovakia. There is a memorial of them.
There are also memorials of fallen soldiers of WW1 and the Austro-Prussian War.
Yes, huge tragedies. However, such things happen and are, rather, an aberration. But what about building memorials of poor patients that hospitals killed (due to human mistakes, therefore “doctors as murderers”). And guess what? It is far more than two people.
Breif history of medicine
Life expectancy at birth averaged 10 years for most of human history. 105 billion people have lived on earth with such a low expectancy. We have high expectancy now, but let’s get back to the ages when it was lucky to live a long life.
Medicine has its roots in ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, and Greece. These early cultures developed rudimentary medical practices, including herbal remedies, surgical techniques, and observations of diseases and their treatments.
Classical Greek medicine emphasized the importance of observation and clinical examination. Galen’s work on anatomy and physiology influenced medical thought for centuries.
During the Islamic Golden Age (8th to 14th centuries), scholars in the Islamic world made significant advancements in medicine. During the Middle Ages, the bodily insides were a work of God and Christianity prohibited any deep examination.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the discovery of anesthesia enabled painless surgery, while improvements in sanitation and hygiene helped control the spread of diseases.
Since the Scientific revolution was fully blown, the advancement of the 20th and 21st centuries was so huge that homo sapiens did more than ever had been done before (basically just like anything): genomic medicine, immunotherapy, telemedicine, robot-assisted surgeries, 3D printing, regenerative medicine, nanomedicine and so on.
They are here to cure us
Hippocratic oath typically emphasizes principles such as patient welfare, professional integrity, confidentiality, and ethical conduct. It serves as a moral compass for physicians and underscores their commitment to the well-being of their patients.
They have extensive ethics conduct material so the doctors are not murderers but always saviors. What an irony!
First, do no harm
As a prominent American psychiatrist, Allen Frances puts it, they always forget the phrase “First, do no harm” which contributes to why the numbers of neglected deaths make doctors murderers.
This principle underscores the importance of considering the potential risks and benefits of medical interventions, treatments, and procedures.
So what numbers have our doctors done?
An earlier study conducted in 2009 found that an estimated 200,000 people die from medical malpractice (in the US) annually. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine conducted a study of medical negligence, finding that an estimated 98,000 people died each year.
The Journal of Patient Safety in 2013 suggested that between 210,000 and 440,000 deaths per year in the United States may be attributable to preventable harm in hospitals.
According to the OECD, 36,000 Czechs die unnecessarily every year. The Prague mass shooting in 2023 was something that usually does not happen. However, the citizens ignited plenty of candles. Please, ignite the 36,000 candles that our health system that I am a part of killed.
If your common MDs were called Doctors Without Borders (not trying to pull down the reputation of this organization) they would be truly loyal to their name.
What if such numbers of deaths were caused by terrorists?
I honestly cannot imagine if such huge numbers of dead people terrorists did. The US would lead many wars which would – as it usually is – result in millions of deaths (directly or indirectly): For example, Barack Obama and George W. Bush prepared their post-9/11 death score: “An estimated 3.6-3.8 million people have died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, bringing the total death toll to at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting. Over 432,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the fighting. 38 million — the number of war refugees and displaced persons.” Costs of War – here
Given the notion that 200,000 people were murdered by terrorists, those aforementioned wars would result in tens of millions of deaths or even more.
Conclusion
Medical malpractice is an insupportable practice that the public should be aware of and it requires an immediate solution. We should let people live longer and happier lives without not having care (I am not saying at all) about aberrations when some lunatics kill people (it is actually the purpose of making people scared).
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