[.ca] Wall of Silence: The Untold Story of the Medical ... (ISBN 089526112X)

Wake up call:
Books like this are a wake up call to the American public. However, one cannot point the blame merely at the government, the health professionals or the system. We are all responsible because we want to have the maximum amount of perfect care for essentially no cost. We are not happy to pay higher health insurance premiums nor are we happy to pay higher taxes. The American public doesn't seem to care about the uninsured or the underinsured or at least doesn't feel that it should pay for their care. Low or no payment for medical care is why emergency rooms are swamped and primary care physicians are seeing patients for less than 10 minutes. And the argument that doctors in training working ridiculous hours is harming people, while possibly true, has nothing to do with the people who are complaining. If you read books and use the internet you are much more likely (but there are exceptions) to have health insurance and therefore very unlikely to have sleep deprived residents responsible for your care. No, those overworked residents are busy caring for the uninsured, the elderly and the poor. Can individuals fix this system? Probably not; however the professionals can try to do the best they can and the public can continue to scream for reform. The public should scream that they are willing to PAY for reform.

Truth be told:
This book is a well researched, well written must read for all Americans. The authors share their personal story as well as the stories of others who have suffered at the hands of a careless physician. While the stories will break your heart, they may also save your life, or the life of someone you love. While none of us want to believe that those we trust with our bodies and our lives would neglect a sacred trust, the fact is it is happening all too often. This book delivers the message without hype, fear or hysteria. Read it, share it and take it with you.

First do no harm:
If even one person dies, that is one too many. But it is not just one, not even 10 or 100 patients who are maimed and dying from health care mistakes. As Gibson and Singh reveal, the numbers are much much higher than that. And anyone of them could be you or your loved ones. Medical errors do not discriminate. Everyone is vulnerable even doctors themselves as patients. Yes, to error is human but that really doesn't appear to be the problem here. A great deal of the problem appears to be that a percentage of health care providers make multiple errors because no one stops them. According to Grayson and Singh many nurses do not recommend their place of employment to their family and friends. When people are not held accountable for their actions and the consequences of those actions everyone is endangered. Taking or being forced to take personal responsiblity for your actions and their consequences plays a large part in how many mistakes you make. I would think it would be every irresponsible health care provider's nightmare to literally have to personally experience everything that they inflict on their patients. Since health care providers are safe from the magic wishing wand, the next best thing is to guard against such mistakes and be public with the information. It is a matter of ethics. When you are ten and don't want to "rat out" a buddy it is rarely life or death. But health care providers are not ten anymore and it is their ethical obligation to put the safety their patients or potential patients first. Please read this book and tell others about it. All of our lives depend on it.

Dying for Safety and Accountability:
What separates Wall of Silence by Gibson and Singh from other books on this topic is the refreshing and bold truth telling contained within it's human stories of pain, injustice and frustration. Not only did the authors shoulder the risks and courage requisite for listening to and then writing about the human face, consequences and devastation of needless medical error tragedies, but they also ferreted out and exposed the ugly truths, told by medical providers themselves, about how the pervasive greed, secrecy and code of silence in the healthcare industry works to bury medical mistakes through a host of means; including blackballing and burying the careers of the competent and ethical medical providers who dare to tell the truth and who place patients above profits. As a medical provider, I can find no better way to encapsulate the meaning and hope of this treatise than through those words offered by the Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. This book is, as she states, 'A call to arms for families who have had loved ones disabled or die in the pursuit of medical treatment.' And, I can only hope that it could also catalyze a 'Call to Arms' for medical providers who wish to return medicine and healthcare to the patient oriented, compassionate, ethical and hippocratic way of practice.

Buy this book:
If you want to know the truth about the medical system and the enormous number of errors and cover-ups within that system, read this book. Well-researched with many shocking and heart-breaking case studies, the book provides answers as well as showing the problems. Thank goodness someone had the courage to buck the system and break down the Wall of Silence for all of us.