New Mexico nurse goes to remove IV from infant, ends up chopping off a toe

Monday, February 01, 2016 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: medical mistakes, infants, toes

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(NaturalNews) A young mother from Farmington, New Mexico, was left heartbroken after her newborn came back from the hospital missing a toe. A nurse at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Hospital accidentally chopped off the infant's pinky toe when removing an IV.

Mother Erica Hogue gave birth to twins via emergency C-section at 29 weeks. One of her two boys made it through the surgery and was eventually cleared to go home with his mother. The other boy, Davante, was kept at the hospital due to a serious brain-bleed.

The boy survived the brain-bleed, but he didn't make it out of the hospital before a nurse made a serious medical error. "He had an IV placed in his foot and the nurse that was taking care of him was cutting away the tape and cut off his toe," said Erica Hogue, speaking to local news media.

It was no minor accident. "The orthopedic surgeon came up, stitched all the way around his toe, and placed him in a leg cast," said Erica Hogue. "Just makes me angry that anything like this could happen."

The hospital apologized but Erica felt like there was no recourse. UNM Hospital authorities plainly said, "The only thing that they could do was use a different tape."

"For me that's just not enough," stated Erica as she began to tear up.

Medical error is a common, deadly occurrence today

Frankly, Erica is lucky the UNM Hospital staff didn't accidentally kill her newborn. Medical error is a serious problem that happens way too often in America's hasty medical system. The statistics on medical error are appalling. Since January 1, 2000, hospital errors have claimed the lives of over 7 million unsuspecting victims. Another 1.5 million plus have died due to general medical error. Few forms of violence and negligence around the world can compare to the deadly errors of the medical system.

Hospitals are one of the most dangerous places in America, accounting for well over 1.2 million deaths since 2000 due to hospital infections alone. In the same time, over 500,000 people were accidentally killed due to surgery error.

It's a hectic kind of medical system that occasionally saves lives but produces millions of severe and deadly errors that leave people debilitated, without body parts, paralyzed or comatose.

Many of the serious problems that the medical system appears to fix could have been avoided altogether through a greater understanding of naturopathy and nutrition. For example, many pharmaceutical drugs include heart attack and stroke among their listed side effects. The medical system heroically intervenes to bring the person back to life but the horrifying situation could have been prevented altogether if the doctor wouldn't have prescribed a drug that caused the heart attack and if the patient would have taken their health into their own hands by making healthier lifestyle decisions. This starts with better education and understanding of where wellness comes from.

Likewise, chemotherapy agents target cancer cells while accelerating the disintegration of the whole immune system. While some survive this destructive process temporarily, their quality of life noticeably diminishes and they are more prone to infections. Additionally, cancer is more likely to return since the whole immune system has been compromised. The fight against cancer ultimately becomes a fight against the deadly side effects of chemotherapy. Over 16 million people have died because of chemotherapy since 2000.

This is unacceptable. Why aren't these systemic, flawed medical errors corrected and reformed? Why does the insanity of the medical system persist? Should we continue to submit to a medical system that lops off infant body parts or pumps people full of drugs that prematurely send them to their death?

Sources include:

NBCNews.com

PharmaDeathClock.com