Medical Malpractice: alarming study estimates the number of deaths resulting from Medical Errors by Hospitals may be as high as 400,000 per year. Serious harm seems to be 10- to 20-fold more common than lethal harm

The number of deaths resulting from Medical Errors in Hospitals have been grossly underestimated according to new estimates developed by John T. James, a toxicologist at NASA’s space center in Houston. James runs an advocacy organization called Patient Safety America that he created after his 19 year old son died as a result of medical malpractice in a Texas Hospital.

In 1999, “To Err is Human Report“, estimated the number of deaths resulting from medical errors in hospitals at 98,000. In 2010, The Office of the Inspector General for Health and Human Services said that bad hospital care contributed to the deaths of 180,000 in Medicare patients alone in a given year.

According to the study published in the current issue of “Journal of Patient Safety” these numbers are too low and the true number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients is estimated at more than 400,000 per year.