More Than 100,000 People Die EVERY Year in the U.S. Because of Hospital Acquired Infections

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

More Than 100,000 People Die EVERY Year in the U.S. Because of Hospital Acquired Infections


A new study proves false the conventional assumption that hospitals make more money on patients who fall ill with hospital-acquired infections. As it turns out, the higher payments do not cover the additional costs.

They study showed an average $26,839 loss for each patient who came down with "central-line-associated" bloodstream infection. A central line is a catheter placed into a vein to provide medication.

Hospital-acquired infections affect roughly 2 million patients each year, and approximately 100,000 die from them.

Recent studies have also shown that such infections are not a normal side-effect of caring for the seriously ill, but are generally caused by poor medical care.

Most people, including most health care professionals, simply do not understand that hospitals comprise nearly ONE-THIRD of the $2.2 trillion the United States spends for "health care." This is TRIPLE what we surrender to drug companies.

It would not be so bad if we actually recieved major benefits for this investment, but, as this article illustrates, this frequently is not the case.

Additionally, you may not realize that only 16 states have laws on the books requiring hospitals to report the number of infections they encounter, and only one (Pennsylvania) has issued reports listing cases at individual hospitals. And that could be crucial information, given how important it is to be cautious about the quality of the hospital you choose.

Frankly, going into the hospital should always be viewed as the option of last resort, when you have exhausted all others. Not only do you risk developing a life-threatening infection, but they all-too-frequently are giving you the wrong solution for your problem. Without question surgery can be a life-saving intervention, especially for acute trauma, but more frequently it is an unwise and poor solution that will cause far more problems than it solves.

Dr. Christopher Gussa from Benson, Arizona weighs in on the issue with some more alarming statistics:

"... I have personally known three people that have died of hospital pneumonia. One was a lung cancer patient of mine whose tumors had begun shrinking! However with his "last" chemo treatment he suddenly developed 'Hospital Pneumonia' and died in a week! ...


"The estimated total number of iatrogenic deaths -- that is, deaths induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures -- in the U.S. annually is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is itself the leading cause of death and injury in the U.S.! By comparison, approximately 699,697 Americans died of heart problems in 2001, while 553,251 died of cancer.


"In April the Journal of American Medicine itself reported that 'properly prescribed' legal drugs killed 106,000 Americans each year, due to toxic reactions. That's more that twenty times the number of Americans killed by illegal drugs, estimated at 5,212. Will politicians declare a War on the Pharmaceutical Drug Pushers? Of course not!

So why are we spending $17 billion on the War on Drugs and not including the biggest Drug Pushers and killers of all? -- The pharmaceutical companies!"