does your doctor cause accidents?

[hensylee]

Medical Physicians: a. The number of medical physicians in the U.S. is approx.700,000 . b. Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000. c. Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.
(Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)


Now think about this: Guns: a. The number of gun owners in the U.S. is
80,000,000. b. The number of accidental gun deaths per year
(all age groups) is 1,500. c. The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.0000188. Statistically, medical doctors are approximately
9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.


Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do"!


FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.


Please alert your friends to this alarming threat.

We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!


Out of concern for the public at large, I have withheld the Statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.

 

[tobagotwo]

Maybe the gun owners who have accidents and the doctors who have accidents could get together with each other for a big convention. The issue might resolve itself...

 

[PapaHappyStar]

Now think about this: Guns: a. The number of gun owners in the U.S. is
80,000,000. b. The number of accidental gun deaths per year
(all age groups) is 1,500. c. The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.0000188. Statistically, medical doctors are approximately
9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Its alarming if out of a population of 280 million 80 million own guns ( legally? ) -- I guess since one cant really exlude kids anymore maybe its accurate -- if accurate this figure has to include non-lethal guns, ( any doctor who can prescribe medicine is potentially lethal though... )

 

[PapaHappyStar]

was wondering if anyone had read this interesting article about the body rituals of the Nacirema tribe .. I find it relevant to many of the issues we discuss here:

http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html

 

[Johnny Stephens]

Uhhh

 

[Marguerite53]

come on Burair

come on Burair

I stopped at the hogwash bristles. Burair! This is a 50 year old study and the tribe is actually American spelled backward!!
Are we supposed to keep reading??

Marguerite

 

[tobagotwo]

Guns generate mixed reactions in me. Doctors I mostly just plain dislike. However, bad and inattentive drivers kill more people each year than doctors, guns, and all US wars combined.

...the number of people killed in traffic accidents in 2003 ? 42,643 ? was higher than it has been in almost every year since 1990. http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2004-08-10-traffic-deaths_x.htm

Firearms are a continuing source of injuries and death, particularly in the wrong hands. Unfortunately, I don't believe that so-called "gun control" legislation would realistically keep guns out of those wrong hands. Great Britain has been trying to get rid of them in the Isles for decades, with only limited success.

However, I believe that gun ownership in the US functions as an unexpected guarantor of our freedoms. It is a primary reason why the US is not a practical place to invade. It is also an unremarked check-and-balance for our own government and military, for the same reason. As a nation, we are an enormous Armed Camp, capable of defending ourselves from ourselves as well as others.

Aside from hunting and sport skeet/trap shooting, they don't seem to be of much practical value, though.

No, I don't hunt. But I'm not against it, particularly for white-tailed deer:

In 2002, there were more than 1.5 million deer-vehicle crashes in the United States that left 150 people dead and caused at least $1.1 billion in damage, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

also...

Further investigation revealed that Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi. These bacteria are transmitted to humans by the bite of infected deer ticks and caused more than 23,000 infections in the United States in 2002. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/

Everything, including having cute deer roaming in the woods, exacts a price...

 

[Johnny Stephens]

If there are any AMA board-certified, gun-toting, white-tailed deer out there, we're all DOOMED.

 

[Nancy]

I really have to defend the terrific doctors out there, and Joe has some of them, and so do I. Without them, I KNOW that Joe would be playing a harp.

I've seen some really miraculous diagnoses and recoveries. Unfortunately my dear husband is given to weird and rare medical problems from time to time in addition to his valve replacements, which are the more tame problems he's had. He needs the big brained guys and gals. And they DO exist.

 

[Karlynn]

I really have to defend the terrific doctors out there, and Joe has some of them, and so do I. Without them, I KNOW that Joe would be playing a harp.

I've seen some really miraculous diagnoses and recoveries. Unfortunately my dear husband is given to weird and rare medical problems from time to time in addition to his valve replacements, which are the more tame problems he's had. He needs the big brained guys and gals. And they DO exist.

So if we factor out the terrific doctors from the equation, how many people do bad doctors kill?

I've had terrific doctors and really bad doctors. As in anything, one bad experience can taint your whole opinion.

 

[geebee]

I would not stay away from doctors or guns. Each serve their purpose - you just have to learn how to use them.

 

[ericaj]

I have to agree with Nancy I too really do have an excellent group of Drs and by group I do mean group! Am up to about 8 now with more surely to add on as I navigate the wonderful world of Genetics and rare medical disorders and MPS.

Erica

 

[PapaHappyStar]

I stopped at the hogwash bristles. Burair! This is a 50 year old study and the tribe is actually American spelled backward!!
Are we supposed to keep reading??

Marguerite

pretty funny isnt it -- and almost too true -- it should be updated to include the ceremonies of xotob and the powerful but painful sorcery of noitcus opil etc.

 

[hensylee]

I'm with Johnny and Burair.

 

[Nancy]

We try to not even think about the bad ones, though.

 

[lance]

Thanks for starting my day in such a great way

Thanks for starting my day in such a great way

Hensylee,

Thanks for the best laugh I've had in some time. I'm still chuckling--so is my spouse. Good, gut wrenching chuckles.

I'd love to take it to my PCP, but I don't think he has a sense of humour.

 

[tommy]

My take is that the less-than-stellar doctors skew that statistics, just as stupid and bad gun owners skew the statistics. The 80/20 rule of thumb is at work here.

We need to route out the bad guys. Doctors can route out their bad guys and protect their own image and save lives. Gun owners haven't a chance to regulate their own. Unfortunately, laws are in effective in taking guns out of the hands of the bad guys.

There is no way that any numbers of laws and any number of cops can protect us from stupid or evil people. People's hearts and economic conditions need to be changed to reduce crime.

I am not a gun user. I am not trained in using guns, and don't feel that I need one, so I do not own one. I have no problem with others owning guns.

I am getting better trained all the time in working with doctors. I need them and use them often. I have met many fantastic doctors. I can't name any that I wouldn't go back to, but I can name some that I would only go back to for certain issues.

I notice that one doctor in my PCP's practive is no longer there. He was great with runny noses, but hadn't read my chart and was surprised by the ticking sound in my chest. When I told him it was a valve, he assumed it was a ball in cage. He turned me on to a different allergy medicine that my PCP didn't tell me about. It helps me a lot. I went back to him later for sinus issues when my PCP was away. But for anything related to heart or coumadin, I find someone else.

 

[Marguerite53]

maybe it's up to you!

maybe it's up to you!

Burair. I'm sorry, perhaps I fended off other innocent victims to your anthropological wandering! I think you've caught your own bait. Now you HAVE to update this!! I know with a little time you could come up with even more ceremonies!!

With the use of cell phones, we've certainly assumed a new posture, too. Ever notice how many people now have their hands to their ears, their heads cocked and elbow sticking out?? The Economist had a cover recently with the progression from apes to, well, super-sized humans (a la McDonalds). I thought they should've used the cell phone image on that one!

I realize the two of us have like a separate thread here, but it's all in good fun!

Marguerite

 

[Barry]

Serious gun-rights advocate here.

I'm in the US. Americans have a tendency to forget that their country was founded by armed revolutionaries and that the 2nd Amendment (the right to keep and bear arms) is about freedom and the people's right to revolution, not duck hunting.

With guns and a zillion other things, there's a trade-off to be made between safety and freedom. A safe society is a police state. A free society inherently has hazards.

Not everyone who died for freedom was in the military. Most died simply as the consequence of the risks inherent to living in a free society.

BTW, I've been to Cuba a couple of times. The cities in Cuba are infinitely safer than any American city. And I wouldn't live in Cuba on a bet, not willing to trade in freedom for safety.

 

[Barry]

was wondering if anyone had read this interesting article about the body rituals of the Nacirema tribe .. I find it relevant to many of the issues we discuss here:

http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html

I've always really liked Body Rituals of the Nacirema. There's a book that does a similar send-up, readily available at amazon.com and a zillion other places: Motel of the Mysteries. It describes an anthropological expedition that digs up an American motel a few thousand years from now and completely misinterprets everything they find.