The year is 1751 and Benjamin Franklin has opened the first public hospital to United States citizens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 87 years later the first police force was established in Boston, Massachusetts. With the succession of several centuries these social services whom initially had the intent to add to the magnificence and tenacious grandeur of the New World are now hurting modern society by something simply labeled as an error. Death by medical error versus police brutality is a problem that is continually developing, more so when coupled with the exposure generated by social media. Two separate enterprises who frequently cross paths and are regularly in the eye of the public receive major criticism for their mistakes. Specifically those that end in malicious fatality. One kills with a gun. The other with a scalpel. It is a matter of what is more likely to occur; death by a medical professional or from a law enforcement officer. The history of medicine begins relative to 2600 BC with the Egyptian Imhotep describing the diagnosis and treatment of over 200 diseases. Two millennia later we have the birth of Hippocrates, a man referred to as the father of Greek medicine, who begins to study medicine on a scientific level and is ultimately able to prescribe an early form of aspirin. Modern advances in the medical field were localized in western Europe beginning around the 1600s. Succeeding the American Revolution the United States was lacking with their adaptation to the ideas and discoveries of new medicine, subsequently post-colonial America did not make the transition to science-based medicine until the late 1880s. When President John F. Kennedy announced the proclamation of the “National Police Week” he referred to the police force as an organization that has been protecting America since the nation’s birth. A strong statement that fell short. At the time of that declaration law-enforcement stations had only been implemented for about 120 years. Since that time not very much within their duties have changed: keep the people safe. Duties include watching and investigating signs of illegal activity. Since their initial establishment the organization meant to keep the people safe also began to hurt the people.
The question stands as to whether or not police brutality is a common as it appears. Specific data has shown that in the constant battle police brutality is heightened in the media to appear as a much bigger problem than what the numbers are actually telling us. Many chose to ignore the facts when presented and push their own beliefs that police are the cause for most deaths not attached to biological cases. Several individuals have spoken about this topic in an attempt to find some form of retribution or legislature to assist in the removal of not just one but both issues from our society. Trial and Error by Matthew Syed, Law Enforcement Error vs. Medical Error – Where is the Outrage? By Alan Barcelona, and Target Malpractice by Kim LaCapria all evaluate death occurrence within the controversy of death by medical error vs. police brutality through either personal opinions or statistical analysis. “Why is it so hard to admit to our mistakes?” this prevalent question for the matter of police when compared to medicine. As cited by Syed the world of health care has transitioned into an era of concealing errors. Of replacing the word mistake with complication to simply protect their professional reputation along with their ego resulting in inaccurate reporting of overall medical errors. “…Medical errors are marginalized and stigmatized.” Approximately 400 thousand people are killed each year as result of the health-care system. That is comparable to two jumbo jets crashing daily. Barcelona has his own statistic being 251,454 people die annually due to medical error. Still a startlingly high number especially since it pertains to only one country but those two statistics are so far apart reiterating the inconsistencies in what medical errors really are reported making it difficult to determine how extensive this societal issue really is. Barcelona was a law enforcement officer for over 30 years and brings forth several statistics promoting faith in the police force. Of 12.1 million arrests less than .03 percent resulted in use of deadly force while fatalities by a doctor are at .171 percent as provided by LaCapria. These numbers sound small but we are talking about the American people as a whole. According to LaCapria, ”Doctors shoot you not with bullets, but with vaccines, chemotherapy and pharmaceuticals… all of which turn out to be FAR more deadly than guns.” Once again there is discrepancy as to how many deaths are from malpractice. Target Malpractice says 783,936 deaths occur through the medical system but only 98 thousand are directly from medical error. LaCapria continues on to say “…No one knows whether those numbers are grossly exaggerated or horribly underestimated.” It’s hard to solve a problem when there isn’t a definitive answer as to how big this problem really is. Conflict within the police department began in the 1830s due to differences in personal belief, ethnicity, political standings, and even economic failures. The term police brutality was not officially used until 1893 by The New York Times while describing of a civilian being beaten by a police officer. Originally published to cnn.com there is an article pertaining to why errors in the medical field are the cause for so many deaths. Accompanying this article is an image of a x-ray in the pelvic region. Amongst the bones and vertebrae you can clearly see an extra “component”. A stray pair of forceps. Forceps being surgical tongs used for gripping and holding. The picture is in gradients of black and white. The forceps are the most prominent feature due to their high density as a result of the amount of radiation permitted to pass. The picture as a whole is slightly blurry but puts emphasis on the size of the forceps. One could infer that the photographer was working with a radiologist and simple set a pair of forceps on top of a person’s pelvis to capture the image as opposed to a private record being released for an article on a subject not a specific case. It is expected individuals would experience disbelief seeing an image of this nature along with having the knowledge that a medical instrument is abandoned in two of every 10,000 surgeries. The image is making the argument that with the extensive training medical staff have to go through medical error should not be a part of the system. They could also be claiming that the staff are not following the guidelines of their job and are becoming incapable of treating people properly and instead making their problems worse. CNN is the first 24 hour news network started in 1980 and was recently rated as a slightly liberal but mostly centered news station on the political spectrum making it a fair and reputable source for information. On average CNN has 500 thousand people watching daily making it the second most watched news channel behind FOX news. Published May of 2016 it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say close to 100 million of the US’ 308 million residents have seen this or an article similar. The most simple and common medical error is falling. There is a specific set of protocol for hospital staff to follow when admitting patients such as knowing possible side effects of anti-depressants, usually including an increased fall risk. A simple fall could mean unknown broken bones along with internal bleeding both lethal if untreated. Another part of death by medical error is to be aware of your own self. Say you have some joint pain in your knee. So you go to your physician and they prescribe you a simple pain medication which helps slightly but doesn’t fully relieve the pain, so you go back and they bump your dosage. This continues gradually and you soon realize you’ve been taking enough painkillers to cause an elephant to go unconscious for a week. At this point you’re addicted. Potentially one of the 15,500 deaths to occur from narcotic abuse. To eradicate this problem hospitals have looked to the fast-food industry to eradicate this growing issue. Simple in nature surgeons have begun using checklists to avoid skipping steps and making careless and potentially fatal errors.
Society as a whole has put police brutality in the limelight for recent years making it seem so many deaths occur by the people supposed to keep us safe. Although that is true corrupt police are not the biggest people to fear but rather your surgeon who’s having an extra stressful day.