【慧園】路透社於2004年7月28日報導了Health Grades公司的一項調查，指出每年可能有195,000人在醫院死於可以輕易避免的錯誤。這個數字是1999年Institute of Medicine公布的98,000人的兩倍。與各種疾病致死的數字相比，醫院錯誤致死人數位居第六位。筆者不是醫學專業人士，為避免斷章取義，特將這則報導的英文原文附錄於後，請感興趣的讀者詳細閱讀。
筆者今天也看到一則中央社8月5日的報導，中國衛生部下屬的研究機構新探健康發展研究中心今天指出，經由不安全注射傳播的肝炎和愛滋病，已導致三十九萬中國人提早死亡。
這讓筆者想起1999年大陸江澤民集團在對法輪功的文革式批鬥中曾經拋出的一個所謂的1400例死亡案例。這些案例已經被證明是江氏集團對法輪功的栽贓陷害，很多人的死亡和修煉法輪功沒有任何關係。而且在中國修煉法輪功的人群非常龐大，即使按中共喉舌媒體的數字，也有200萬人。同時眾所周知，很多煉各種氣功的人都是老人和病人，至少在開始是以袪病健身為目的。所以即使這1400例都是真的，每年死亡200人，死亡率也僅僅是萬分之一，遠遠低於正常人口死亡率幾十倍。這反而證明法輪功袪病之奇效。
江氏集團和一些所謂的“反偽科學”鬥士在批鬥法輪功時，往往扯出不著邊際的1400例，並打出“為人民生命負責”和“科學”的幌子。按照他們的邏輯，美國的醫院每年造成19萬人死亡，都應該被取締才是；中國的醫院僅僅因為不安全注射就造成39萬人死亡，更應該被取締、被揭批。
關於法輪功袪病健身的效果，請見明慧叢書之《絕處逢生》一書，裏面記錄了很多人因修煉法輪功治癒絕症的案例。該書可以在以下網頁下載。《絕處逢生》
如果在過去的五年來法輪功在大陸沒有受到無理的迫害，不知會有多少人也能夠絕處逢生，免於被病魔奪去生命。那些打著科學幌子的人在批鬥法輪功前，至少應該對修煉法輪功的人群做一番調查統計，把法輪功袪病的效果和醫院進行比較，而不應該先預設立場，然後引述沒有第三方調查的個例進行批鬥。這種態度不是科學的態度，他們享受言論的特權對被剝奪言論自由的法輪功的批鬥更類似於迫害科學家的宗教裁判所。
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附錄：路透社2004年7月28日新聞稿原文：
Study: Hospital errors cause 195,000 deaths
Report doubles earlier Institute of Medicine estimate
Wednesday, July 28, 2004 Posted: 10:08 AM EDT (1408 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- As many as 195,000 people a year could be dying in U.S. hospitals because of easily prevented errors, a company said Tuesday in an estimate that doubles previous figures.
Lakewood, Colorado-based HealthGrades Inc. said its data covers all 50 states and is more up-to-date than a 1999 study from the Institute of Medicine that said 98,000 people a year die from medical errors.
"The HealthGrades study shows that the IOM report may have underestimated the number of deaths due to medical errors, and, moreover, that there is little evidence that patient safety has improved in the last five years," said Dr. Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs at the company.
The company, which rates hospitals based on a variety of criteria and provides information to insurers and health plans, said its researchers looked at three years of Medicare data in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
"This Medicare population represented approximately 45 percent of all hospital admissions (excluding obstetric patients) in the U.S. from 2000 to 2002," the company said in a statement.
HealthGrades included as mistakes failure to rescue dying patients and the death of low-risk patients from infections -- neither of which the Institute of Medicine report included.
It said it found about 1.14 million "patient-safety incidents" occurred among the 37 million hospitalizations.
"Of the total 323,993 deaths among Medicare patients in those years who developed one or more patient-safety incidents, 263,864, or 81 percent, of these deaths were directly attributable to the incidents," it added.
"One in every four Medicare patients who were hospitalized from 2000 to 2002 and experienced a patient-safety incident died."
The U.S. government said it is trying to spearhead a move to get hospitals and clinics to use electronic databases and prescribing methods. The Institute of Medicine report said many deaths were due to medication prescribing errors or to errors in delivering medications.
"If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual list of leading causes of death included medical errors, it would show up as number six, ahead of diabetes, pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease and renal disease," Collier said.
