An imperative analysis that begs for discussion by industry watchdogs and consumers alike.
A succinct, disturbing report on the prevalence of malpractice in modern medicine.
Pittsburgh-based employment attorney Lieber (Rats in the Grain: The Dirty Tricks of the “Supermarket to the World,” Archer Daniels Midland, 2000, etc.) assesses medical error with a straightforward approach and provides chilling results. A victim of misdiagnosis himself, he believes “medical errors always have been with us.” The author examines a number of cases, including college freshman Libby Zion’s untimely death in 1984, Floridian Willie King’s grievous amputation error, and Jesica Santillan’s death due to the mismatched blood type of an organ transplant. Fortunately, Lieber doesn’t decorate his study with scare tactics or confusing jargon; his perspective is clearly that of an informed consumer concerned with the welfare of those seeking American medical care. He cites a downward attitudinal shift in perception of professional clinical care which began in the 1990s, when a bloom of malpractice cases—which Lieber lists in chilling succession—initiated disclosure clauses and fostered quality improvement and monitoring initiatives. The media firestorm became fueled by further exposure from celebrities like Dana Carvey, Dennis Quaid, and the late Andy Warhol (and more recently, Joan Rivers), who all were on the receiving end of lethal or potentially lethal medical negligence. The malpractice statistical data borne from the ensuing scrutiny of medical centers became a startling wake-up call for the industry at large. The book’s second half is perhaps more user-friendly from a consumer standpoint, as the author provides illuminating, cautionary chapters focusing on avoiding prescription medication blunders, the rampant politicization of the health care spectrum, and the inherent dangers lurking within the “maze-like, chaotically organized acute and long-term care institutions.” While not a medical professional, Lieber does offer proactive patient advice for those seeking to reduce the risk of infection or injury while hospitalized. He concludes with a hopeful appeal to medical environments to be more vigilant about performance standards.
An imperative analysis that begs for discussion by industry watchdogs and consumers alike.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-682190-10-4
Page Count: 282
Publisher: OR Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
