The older I get, the more stories I hear involving friends or relatives subjected to poor medical care or advice. The case that leaves me shaking my head involves a friend who had a surgical sponge left inside his leg during a procedure which almost led to his death some months later.

When it comes to errors resulting from misdiagonses: An experienced doc/med school professor once told me that they are unable to diagnose 10% of cases that come to his hospital (i.e., don’t know the cause of the ailment/symptoms).