From 1861 to 1865, approximately 620,000 soldiers' lives were cut short, not to mention the 50,000 civilian lives that were also claimed. Soldiers lost during that time exceeded the combination of soldiers lost from the Revolutionary War, both World Wars, the Korean War, the Mexican War, and even the Spanish-American War. In comparison to today's population, six million people would die in four years or two percent of our population. The impact of death on the human capital grew in importance. It became familiar in fact, a part of daily life for Americans at that time.
People have struggled with the concept of Mental Illness since the middle ages. In the Middle Ages if someone was behaving is an abnormal manner they were thought to be possessed by demons and they will be exorcised by priests. In the 1900s lobotomy was widely known as the cure for mental illnesses. In the 1940’s Walter Freeman went on a crusade to offer lobotomy to everyone that needed it (and some that didn’t) and in his career it is estimated that he performed 3500 lobotomies, even when the scientific basis for this was not very strong. In the 1960’s a group of psychiatrists’ formed the anti-psychiatry movement and stated that psychiatry had no validity.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down 1. Discuss your overall impression of the book. In the book, “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, a Hmong family’s struggles to maintain its tradition and culture, clashes with the American Health care system when one of their daughter’s, Lia Lee, fell very ill. The book presented to the reader the different ways an illness is perceived and treated in the Hmong culture and in the process unearthed the American Health care system’s inability to associate the disease process to the person as a whole. Whilst there was constant tug of war between the Hmong family and the American doctors with regards to Lia Lee’s treatment plan, both parties interest was only to get the afflicted the best care possible and would want her to survive.
After hundreds of trailed and failed pharmaceutical drugs they resulted to using a controversial medication – Cannabis Oil. The results were astounding; Cheri speaks of her child going from a dazed and uncontrollable state to being able to walk and communicate within 15 minutes. This has been the case for over 70 suffering families in Australia with children that have life threatening diseases. They have all turned to medical cannabis and over 70% have reported significant improvements. So where does this leave us?
Dr. Jack Kevorkian gained world attention by assisting in several suicides to dying patients; he was sentenced to over 60 years for his efforts, despite the gratitude of the patients and their families. Among the opponents are some physicians who believe it violates the fundamental tenet of medicine and believe that doctors should not assist in suicides because to do so is incompatible with the doctor’s role as a healer. It would violate doctors Hippocratic Oath, upon receiving a medical degree, each doctor is required to take a Hippocratic Oath, which states among other things, “first to do no harm.” ( Nitschke, 2001 ) Assisting in suicide would be a violation of that oath, and it would lead to a weaking of doctor’s patient’s trust. The oath was created in part so patients could be reassured that doctors only wanted to help them, not hurt them. A weaking of that oath may cause patients to wonder.
In 1918 a great influenza, or flu outbreak, killed more than fifty million people. The influenza virus is also known as the “La Grippe” which translates to “Spanish Flu”. In a single year it killed more people than the Great War, also known as World War I. The flu today still remains a constant threat. Each “flu season”, many people die.
“Dad has Multiple Sclerosis.” My older sister, Michelle, told this to me when I was 10 years old. We had known that something was wrong. He had been in an accident a year earlier, hurt his leg and he just never got better. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects 240 million people worldwide. MS is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system, which contains the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.
Liberia has been an independent country since 1848, making it the oldest African republic, however it is known for its long running, and disastrous civil war in 1990s. Liberia emerged from its second civil war in 2003, and it is still undergoing extensive reconstruction. Much of the country was bombed and therefore many buildings had been destroyed and abandoned during the two civil wars. With less than one hundred medical doctors and three hundred certified midwives, there is dire need for more trained health professionals. Maternal mortality rates in West Africa are amongst the highest in the world.
The government were extremely concerned that this was going to be a repeat of the 1918 and 1957 pandemics; where nearly 50-100 million people died worldwide, but, the pandemics became milder as time went on. The deaths were reduced due to medical advancements and more people were aware of the actions needed to prevent the disease; so who is mot at risk? Anyone can suffer from swine flu, but children (specifically under 5’s because their immune systems aren’t fully developed yet), pregnant women and people with existing health problems; are the most affected. The puzzling aspect of the H1N1 virus is that it also effects the healthier of us. At one point, out of 77 deaths 1/5th were extremely healthy.
Another one third of all claims result from diagnostic errors (e.g., interpretation of radiology reports). Generally, medical errors cause approximately 100,000 deaths a year. Death from prescription errors increased dramatically in the past 25 years and exceeded all other causes of death except AIDS. Fatal prescription errors are even greater for outpatients than for inpatients, particularly among the elderly. This is due in large measure to increased use of mail order and Web-based pharmacies, enabling patients to self-medicate too much or suffer adverse effects of multiple medications, since they receive no direct professional guidance.While medical malpractice lawsuits ensure the rights of injured patients and compensate them for medical negligence, the dramatic increase in lawsuits has caused a growing public concern about the ramifications of huge settlements.