Misdiagnosis -- I'm amazed daily

It's only 12 noon, and I've had 4 phone conversations this morning -- and every single person tells me they know of someone (besides me) who has been misdiagnosed. And two of them were misdiagnosed themselves.

In research for my book, I learned that even the US government has statistics: between 44,000 and 100,000 Americans DIE (yes, as in -- DEAD) every YEAR -- from a misdiagnosis or medical error. (And that's just in the US!) I was soooo close to being a statistic.

And HealthGrades.com -- which rates doctors -- proposes an even higher number -- they say 250,000 Americans suffer from misdiagnoses and medical errors each year. That's not the same as DEAD -- but no doubt some feel as if they might have been.

Hopefully DiagKNOWsis and Every Patients Advocate will help cut those numbers. We need to watch out for ourselves!