Doctors vs. Gun Owners

[classicrockgriller]

Got this in an E-mail.


Doctors vs. Gun Owners

Doctors

(A)  The number of physicians in the U.S. Is 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  and  Human Services.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Now think about this:

Guns

(A)  The number of gun owners in the U.S. Is 80,000,000.


(Yes, that's 80 million)


(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 .000188.

Statistics courtesy of FBI

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So,  statistically, 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.

This means you are over 900 times more likely to be killed by a doctor as by a gun owner!!!


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


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 withheld the statistics on

Lawyers For fear the shock would cause

People to panic and seek medical attention!

[Quarlow]

You know it is funny but sadly true.

[KevinG]

I knew there was a reason I was avoiding doctors.

[Oldman]

Interesting ... but I would like to see supporting data.

[DTAggie]

So take your gun on doctor visits?

[OU812]

               GUNS DONT KILL PEOPLE        PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE

[KevinG]

I may not know for sure if that's true or not, but anyone with half a brain knows that there are more people killed by automobiles than guns. Should we ban transportation?

[Quarlow]

I may not know for sure if that's true or not, but anyone with half a brain knows that there are more people killed by automobiles than guns. Should we ban transportation?

Well I for one would love to travel by horse. A slower pace to life would be much welcome.

[classicrockgriller]

Somebody would slip in the Horse crap and die! ;D

[beefmann]

i have yet to see an empty gun kill someone

[BuyLowSellHigh]

This is great for a laugh.  The general point that someone was trying to make is probably valid – you are a greater risk of death from medical treatment, broadly, than you are from a firearm.  However, there is a caveat.   Firearms are not a significant cause of accidental deaths, and nearly all medically related deaths would be described as accidental or unintentional.  In the interest of accuracy I tried to get at some good numbers form authoritative sources.

THE authority for death statistics in the US is the CDC.  The second thing you quickly find is that statistics for medical error related deaths are very debatable and difficult to pin down.

From a search of CDC statistics comes the following for firearm deaths in 2006:
Number of Deaths  30,896   
Population  298,362,973
Crude Rate per 100,000  10.36
Firearm suicides 16,883, or 54% of the total firearm related deaths (leaving 14,013 non-suicide cases).

Trying to pin down deaths arising directly from medical care errors is much harder and debatable. Part of the problem is how the cause of death is assigned.   CDC's Medical Adverse Effects Numbers, which includes drug-related are much smaller:
Number of Deaths  2,521
Population    298,362,973
Crude Rate per 100,000  0.84

But, there was  a paper that was published in 2000 in the highly regarded and peer reviewed AMA Journal that states 215,000 deaths per year arising from medical error, making errors related to medical care the third highest cause of death.  It is important to note that these are NOT necessarily physician error.  The medical error numbers were summarized as follows:
2,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery
7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals
20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals
80,000 deaths/year from infections in hospitals
106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medications

There are similar reports and subsequent revisions in other papers that would put these numbers higher, reaching as high as 250,000.

As you can see the medical error numbers require a good deal of interpretation on the true cause of death.  But, it is probably a very valid point is that you are a greater risk of death from medical care than you are from a firearm, especially if you exclude suicides, and the leading problems in medical care are non-error negative effects of drugs and infections acquired in hospitals.  The associated quandary is what would have happened to the numbers if the medical cases had not sought treatment?

refs:
http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html
http://www.cancure.org/medical_errors.htm
http://www.naturodoc.com/library/public_health/doctors_cause_death.htm

[BuyLowSellHigh]

I'll add this just to keep things in perspective.  All of the above is about what is classified as "unintentional injury", which considering all age groups was the 5th leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2006.  A nice graphic from CDC that breaks down that further is shown here.

While it is the 5th leading cause when all age groups are considered, it is the top cause of death  under age 44.  It's an age old and well known observation -- the young die from primarily accidents (motor vehicle being by far the top), the old die from disease with heart disease and cancer being the top killers.

Damn, looks like getting old will kill ya.   ;D