Beware, Beware…Be informed, Be informed…I can not say this often enough. If you are to be a patient or a loved one is to be, do not take medical issues for granted. If you do not take things for granted in other areas of your life why stop at one’s health. So take charge of your health. Take the time to research the illness and to discuss your findings with your doctor and family members. The internet has a chock full of definitions and advice on heath-related issues.  Read up on of your particular illness or a related illness. Read as much  information about the illness from various websites, journals and  go a step further and read discussions and information from organizations, from their pamphlets and from their support groups. Get in touch with them to set up an appointment for more information or to join a support group. After doing your research, arm yourself with a list of questions to bring to your doctor. If you are not satisfied, go for that second opinion — another consultation.

Excerpts from:

http://health.yahoo.net/rodale/PVN/don-t-get-surgery-in-july

A part from interfering with your beach vacation, there’s another, more serious reason to steer clear of summer surgery if you can: a 10% spike in fatalities at teaching hospitals in July, confirmed by a new Journal of General Internal Medicine study. David Phillips, PhD, the study’s lead author and professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego, speculates that the “July effect” may occur because that’s the month when new doctors-in-training begin their residencies.

The fatalities aren’t the fault of poor knife skills botching operations, though—rather, they’re due to mistakes made prescribing and administering patient medications, both surgery-related and not.

All told, as many as 98,000 deaths occur each year due to all kinds of medical mistakes—the equivalent of a fully packed 747 crashing every other day. According to a congressional mandated study on Medicare recipients, during 2008, 1 in 7 hospital patients experienced at least one unintended harm that prolonged his or her stay, caused permanent injury, required life-sustaining treatment, or resulted in death.

So what can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen to you or someone you love? Plenty, say doctors, nurses, and researchers. Here’s where to start.

The 14 worst hospital mistakes to avoid.