Ebook: Surviving your doctors: why the medical system is dangerous to your health and how to get through it alive

Every year, 90,000 patients die in our American hospitals due to medical error. The price to individuals, families, and society at large is in the billions, and yet wrongful medical outcomes are often swept under the rug. Patients need to know how to avoid medical blunders from the minute they step foot in their doctor's office or hospital. This book, written from an insider's perspective, walks readers through the potential hazards of healthcare and offes guidance for how to avoid injury or worse.;I. EVERYDAY MEDICAL AND HEALTH CONCERNS. Taking control of your health care, or, The wisdom of 2nd and 3rd opinions -- Insurance companies: organized crime or just bad policies -- An apple a day: and other things to protect your health when visiting the doctor's office -- Does your kid really need that shot? Protecting your children in the system -- The pharmacy and prescription drugs, or, Beware of the spoonful of sugar that helps the "medicine" go down -- Visiting the emergency room without feeling like a bit-player on a TV drama -- II> MAJOR DISEASES AND LONG-TERM ISSUES. A real heart-to-heart about cardiac care -- how to handle the big C from A to Z: coping with cancer treatment -- Baby boom or bust: how to stroll through maternity, neonatal, and fertility issues -- You give me fever: infection and communicable diseases -- How to maintain some sanity in the mental health system -- III. THE HOSPITAL AND MAJOR PROCEDURES. Hospital outpatient visits and how to make sure you actually get out! Hospital stays: as dangerous as a war zone? -- Medical tests and how to avoid becoming a lab rat! -- Major surgeries, or, How to make sure you still have a leg to stand on afterward! -- IV. THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE. A cure for the medical system.