Are Medical Mistakes the Leading Cause of Death in the US?

We may have one of the best systems for treating acute surgical emergencies, but the American medical system is clearly an unmitigated failure when it comes to treating chronic illness. By sfam_photo/Shutterstock

This happens to the tune of about 40,000 events every single day, with approximately 250,000 lives lost each year (about 1 in 10 patients), making it the third leading cause of death in the US. Worse, you don’t even need to be sick or do anything wrong to become a victim of this astonishing trend.