Posted by John Nichols on September 18, 2004 at 21:26:04 from 165.91.196.143 user Mcneacail.
In Reply to: Loaded questions?? Re: Ghastly Mess (was A Ransome Moment) posted by Adam Quinan on September 18, 2004 at 02:41:45:
I should be less cryptic.
I study deaths in disasters as part of my normal university research work. I have stumbled across some stuff on medical accidents and mistakes that kill people who should otherwise live. One of the accidents amoungst young children is incorrect medicine dosages. One researcher thinks that upto 15 % of medicines are administered incorrectly (ie to high a dose) in the toddler range. One of the common problems is the measurement of the child's weight in lbs and the dosage determined in grams/ kg body weight or equivalent.
The errors are made on the use of the equations to determine the correct weight in kg. This is enough of a problem in the USA that one major medical web site recommends that you know your childs mass in kg to avoid this error.
Ah..... my old hobby horse get rid of the Inch lb system.
So that is the problem in a nutshell. So if you weigh yourself in lbs and so does your Doctor then you are at a risk from one form of accidental death in the USA. One report puts the accidental deaths due to Doctors at 98,000 and there are 2.5 million deaths per annum in the USA so that is about 4 per cent. This is twice the number killed in motor vehicle accidents.
JMN