BMJ 2000;320:726-727 ( 18 March )

Editorials

Medical error: the second victim

The doctor who makes the mistake needs help too

Personal view p 812

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

When I was a house officer another resident failed to identify the electrocardiographic signs of the pericardial tamponade that would rush the patient to the operating room late that night. The news spread rapidly, the case tried repeatedly before an incredulous jury of peers, who returned a summary judgment of incompetence. I was dismayed by the lack of sympathy and wondered secretly if I could have made the same mistakeand, like the hapless resident, become the second victim of the error.

Strangely, there is no place for mistakes in modern medicine. Society has entrusted physicians with the burden of understanding and dealing with illness. Although it is often said that "doctors are only human," technological wonders, the apparent precision of laboratory tests, and innovations that present tangible images of illness have in fact created an expectation of perfection. Patients, who have an understandable need to consider their doctors infallible, . . . [Full text of this article]

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Looking back . . .

Anonymous
BMJ 2000 320: 812. [Full Text]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Medical Errors and Medical Education

Carlos Estrada
bmj.com, 19 May 2000 [Full text]