Originally published August 18 2008
Hospitals Are a Major Health Hazard
by Andreas Moritz
(NaturalNews) In 1995, a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) said that, "Over a million patients are injured in U.S. hospitals each year, and approximately 280,000 die annually as a result of these injuries. Therefore, the iatrogenic death rate dwarfs the annual automobile accident mortality rate of 45,000 and accounts for more deaths than all other accidents combined." These statistics have become a lot worse since 1995. Unless you require an emergency treatment, it is better to avoid hospitals altogether. Many hospitals today may pose a major risk to your health for the following reasons:
* They are filled with infection-causing bacteria that cannot be found anywhere else. Hospitals, which often house very large numbers of sick people, are the ideal breeding environment for the sometimes deadly bugs. Hospital patients generally have a lower level of immunity and offer little or no resistance to them. Many of the microbes are passed on to the patients through the cooling towers, air conditioning and heating systems in hospitals. The hospital staff, due to constant exposure to the bugs, are fairly immune to them, but may pass them on to patients by touching them or their food, bedding, clothing, or medications.
* Contrary to common belief, hospitals are among the most contaminated places in the world. In fact, it is virtually impossible to keep hospitals spotlessly clean, and it does not take much dirt to become a breeding place for billions of deadly infectious bacteria.
* Doctors can be the worst transmitters of disease in hospitals. Most doctors do not wash their hands except before an operation, when they wear sterilized gloves and gowns anyway. They may sometimes touch many dozens of patients within several hours, one after the other, without washing their hands even once. Even the doctor's white gown is not as clean as it looks. It is only clean if it is washed every single day, which rarely happens. When it is washed, it comes into contact with the dirty laundry from the operating room, bed covers, pillowcases, etc. Many extremely harmful bugs survive the washing machine and dryer.
* Bed sheets may be clean, but mattresses and pillows are not. The chance of being infected by bugs living in them is 1 in 20.
* Fifty percent of all infections in hospitals occur because of the patient's contact with non-sterile medical instruments such as catheters and intravenous infusion installations. Before they were in common use, such infections occurred only very rarely.
* In the United States, over 90,000 people a year die from hospital-acquired infections. This figure does not account for those who are considered to be dying, or are already weakened by an operation. Yet they, too, are killed by a hospital-acquired infection.
* A 1,500-page report of a 3-year study on the causes of death in American hospitals revealed that a further "300,000 Americans die each year in hospitals as a result of medical negligence."
* The most dangerous place in a hospital is the maternity ward because infants have not gained immunity against any disease-causing agents. The most vulnerable babies are these who are deprived of the antibodies contained in breast milk.
* A hospital patient may receive up to 12 different kinds of medication, all of which produce side effects that can lead to serious complications and even death.
* Many studies have shown that between 25 and 50 percent of the long-term patients staying in U.S. and U.K. hospitals are suffering from malnutrition due to a poor hospital diet. Malnutrition was found to be the major cause of death among older people in hospitals. An undernourished body is hardly able to defend itself against any type of illness. Add the toxic side effects of the drugs, the presence of deadly bugs, as well as the stress and anxiety that accompany an illness and a stay in a hospital, and a poorly nourished elderly person has very little chance of surviving.
* A spot check of 105 U.S. hospitals conducted by the American government showed that 69 of them had violated basic laws and rules. The commission in charge of granting licenses to hospitals (JCAH), however, refused to close them down.
* Most deliveries today take place in the operation theaters of hospitals, which when compared with home deliveries, increases the infant's risk of injury during delivery by six times, of getting stuck in the mother's birth canal by eight times, of requiring resuscitation techniques by four times, of becoming infected by four times, and of developing chronic physical problems by thirty times. In addition, a mother is three times as likely to hemorrhage if she gives birth in a hospital.
* More than 3,000 hospital patients in the U.S. undergo wrong-side surgery each year.
Given these and other major health risks linked with a stay in the hospital, it can be said that hospitals are among the most dangerous places in the world. I, therefore, advise you to do everything necessary to prevent illness from arising in the first place so that you can avoid them altogether, unless of course, it is for an emergency like an accident.
Excerpted from the bestselling book, Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation, by Andreas Moritz (www.ener-chi.com)
About the author
Andreas Moritz is a medical intuitive; a practitioner of Ayurveda, iridology, shiatsu, and vibrational medicine; a writer; and an artist. He is the author of the international bestseller, The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush; Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation, Lifting the Veil of Duality, Cancer Is Not a Disease, It's Time to Come Alive, Heart Disease No More, Diabetes No More, Simple Steps to Total Health, Diabetes�No More, Ending the AIDS Myth. Feel Great - Lose Weight, Heal Yourself with Sunlight, and Vaccine-nation: Poisoning the Population, One Shot at a Time. For more information, visit the author's website: www.ener-chi.com
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