This could be true for blood transfusions as well.
"hardly ever does someone die through the policy and if they do,its there are probably other factors to balme too".
philo, I was just thinking, if todays statistics have improved, i.e. with new testing procedures, then there is probably less of a chance in dying as a result of transfused blood. Also, I was told by an MD, that the use of blood has dropped. So that it's only used in critically ill patients, no longer as a standard procedure. I'm wondering if the mortality rates reflect whether the patient dies as a direct result of having been transfused? I hope this makes sense, but if you get a statistic that says 1/100 patients transfused dies, it may not a be reliable reflection of transfusion complications, but that in many hopitals, blood is only used if deemeed absolutely necesarry, therefore the patient is already in trouble medically. That's the trend in Canada, at least.
If you can find some statistics, can you find out the variables used to compare the patients? 100 nontransfused jws undergoing a surgical procedure do not compare equally with 100 patients that have been transfused, unless their medical conditions are equal. Actually, you wouldn't have to even control for medical condition, use all levels. There must be a study out there that simply compares the two groups as a whole. Jws undergoing surgery and heathens undergoing surgery.
Edited by - Sassenach on 8 March 2001 11:19:51