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Today?s Distressing Safety Checklist

By Joe Consumer

If you?re planning to go outside today, don?t get hurt, be careful driving, watch what you eat ? or at least, be very very careful!  Here?s what we found in the news today:

1. A revealing yet frightening column in the New York Times written by medical students who say that the culture of medicine fails miserably to emphasize and teach patient safety.  Contrary to those who blame malpractice litigation for the culture of secrecy in medicine (we don?t! ), this column reveals that even medical students who see errors and try to speak up ?run the risk of being labeled ?troublemakers? and ?naïve,?? and they ?suggest a pressing need for a cultural shift, one that dissolves the secrecy surrounding medical errors and allows trainees and seasoned doctors to speak openly about their mistakes and those their colleagues have made.?  Can we please stop blaming injured patients and their lawyers for this now?

2. Following evidence at trial that a unit of Kimberly-Clark ?encouraged surgeons to use a ?pain pump,? in an unapproved and unsafe manner? that ?caused severe cartilage deterioration? and left a ?38-year-old father of four with constant pain and a disabled arm,? a jury awarded him $4.75 million, setting the stage for other cases. 

3. Speaking of medical devices, especially the really dangerous ones that manufacturers can now produce without any fear of liability, the FDA just approved a new Medtronic heart valve ?under its humanitarian device exemption policy? i.e., ?a device is approved for limited use on the assurance that its health benefits outweigh the risk of injury or illness.?  And somehow they?re trusting Medtronic on this?

4. As to Toyota?s sticking-throttle recall, turns out that ?it knew there were problems with accelerator-pedal assemblies from supplier CTS late last year? but did nothing, and ?Toyota continues selling models involved in the recall, expecting that they work fine because they are new and the throttles don't seem to begin sticking until the vehicle ages.?  Yikes!

5.  And then on the food front, ?A Rhode Island meat company recalled 1.24 million pounds of pepper-coated salami on Saturday, after officials conducting a months-long, multistate investigation of a salmonella outbreak compared shopping receipts of those who got sick. ..the recall by Daniele International Inc. comes amid an outbreak that's sickened 184 people in 38 states since July."

Uh, on second thought, maybe stay home today?

Full post as published by ThePopTort on January 26, 2010 (boomark / email).