Scariest Hospital Risks

Featuring

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  7 Hazards to Your Health

  At least 1.5 million Americans fall prey to hospital error every year. The mistakes aren't exactly minor, either. Between 40,000 and 100,000 people die every year because of shoddy handiwork, including surgical mishaps and drug mix-ups. The death toll from mistakes is at least as bad as that from car accidents or breast cancer, and maybe as bad as that from strokes.
  
  Click through our gallery as Forbes reveals the seven scariest complications.
  
  Read the Article
  
  First Up: Surgeon Error

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• Surgery

  Risk: Surgeon Error

  Prevention: A Quick Conversation
  
  Surgery foul-ups run the gamut--from freakish incidents involving scalpels left inside patients and wrong limbs being amputated to excessive bleeding and sudden heart failure. That's why the medical team should discuss their plan before the procedure.
  
  More on Surgeon Error
  
  Next: Infected Incisions

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• Stitches

  Risk: Infected Incisions

  Prevention: Antibiotics Before Surgery
  
  Infected incisions are particularly dangerous as hospital germs are more likely to be resistant to antibiotics that doctors use to kill them off.
  
  More on Infected Incisions
  
  Next: Bleeding Too Much

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• Bag of blood

  Risk: Bleeding Too Much

  Prevention: Active Medication Management
  
  Watching the dose of blood-thinners like heparin, an injection given during operations, and Coumadin, a pill, can help. Getting the dose right is critical. Yes, that "can help" is confusing. It should say "are important medicines." Anti-coagulants means "blood-thinners" -- so no, these don't help bleeding in any way.
  
  More on Bleeding Too Much
  
  Next: Getting Sicker

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• A woman feeling ill

  Risk: Getting Sicker

  Prevention: Continuous Vigilance
  
  While patients often have a good sense of how they feel when managing their illness at home, their perception gets clouded in the hospital -- and that leads to complications.
  
  More on Getting Sicker
  
  Next: Pneumonia

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• An X-ray

  Risk: Pneumonia

  Prevention: Better Ventilator Care
  
  Patients on ventilators are already very sick, but an infected ventilator can make matters worse. Ventilators are breeding ground for germs if water pools in its hoses; bacteria can move from the stomach into the lungs through the machine.
  
  More on Pneumonia
  
  · See More Scariest Hospital Complications
  
  Next: Nine Sleep Myths

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  More from WalletPop:
  
  Nine Sleep Myths
  
  Fifty percent of Americans have trouble getting to sleep, according to a recent survey by Consumer Reports Health. Much of this sleep trouble can be blamed on wrong ideas. If you think snoring is normal or naps are a waste of time, think again.
  
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