• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About Us
    • Our Attorneys
    • Our Staff
      • Sheila Chavez
      • Marin Gorman
    • Mission Statement
    • Community Service
    • Charities We Support
    • Secret Settlements – Our Stand
    • Patrick Malone & Associates Offers Scholarship to Law Students for Representing Real People
  • Attorneys
    • Patrick Malone
    • Daniel C. Scialpi
    • Alfred Clarke
    • Heather J. Kelly
    • Aaron M. Levine, Of Counsel
    • Peter R. Masciola, Of Counsel
  • Focus Areas
    • Medical Malpractice
      • Hospital Errors
      • Cancer Misdiagnosis
      • Diabetes
      • Kaiser HMO Malpractice
      • Military Malpractice
      • Hospital Security Misconduct
    • Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries
      • Brain Injuries From Medical Care
      • Lead Poisoning
      • Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
      • TBI Long-Term Care & Rehabilitation
    • Baby & Child Injuries
      • Birth Injuries
      • Infant/Child Brain Injuries
      • Shaken Baby Syndrome
      • Pediatric Anesthesia Errors
      • Jaundice/Kernicterus
      • Bacterial Meningitis
    • Sex Abuse of Children and Youths
      • Sexual Abuse Claims in Washington D.C.
    • Auto, Truck, and Motorcycle Accidents
      • Car Accidents
        • Maryland Car Accidents
        • Virginia Car Accidents
      • Truck Accidents
      • Motorcycle Accidents
      • Pedestrian Accidents
      • Bicycle Accidents
      • Train Accidents
    • Defective & Dangerous Products
    • Dangerous Drugs
      • Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
    • Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse
    • Consumer Rights
    • Accounting and Legal Malpractice
      • How To Sue Your Lawyer For Malpractice
      • Common Legal Malpractice Claims
      • Damages For Legal Malpractice
      • Missing The Deadline For A Lawsuit
  • Success
    • Verdicts & Settlements
    • What Our Clients Say
    • True Stories
  • Publications
  • Resources
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Steps in the Legal Process
    • The Jury Trial System
    • Legal Deadlines for Filing Your Personal Injury Lawsuit
    • Better Health Care Newsletter from Patrick Malone
    • Sign Up for Our Free Newsletter on Getting Better Health Care
    • Free Fact Kit for Injury Victims
    • Tips for Patient Safety and Better Health Care
    • Health Care Advocates’ Power Kit
    • For Attorneys
    • More Legal Resources
    • Fellow Inner Circle Members
    • DC Hospital Ratings Map
    • Motor Vehicle Accident Blog
    • Washington D.C. Bike Map
    • Commute Risk Calculator
  • Patient Safety Blog
    • ProtectPatientsBlog.com
  • Malpractice A-Z
  • Contact Us

Patrick Malone Law

Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Law Firm | Patrick Malone Law

CALL US TODAY:

202-742-1500
888-625-6635

Are You A Lawyer Seeking Co-Counsel ?
  • About Us
    • Our Attorneys
    • Our Staff
      • Sheila Chavez
      • Marin Gorman
    • Mission Statement
    • Community Service
    • Charities We Support
    • Secret Settlements – Our Stand
    • Patrick Malone & Associates Offers Scholarship to Law Students for Representing Real People
  • Attorneys
    • Patrick Malone
    • Daniel C. Scialpi
    • Alfred Clarke
    • Heather J. Kelly
    • Aaron M. Levine, Of Counsel
    • Peter R. Masciola, Of Counsel
  • Focus Areas
    • Medical Malpractice
      • Hospital Errors
      • Cancer Misdiagnosis
      • Diabetes
      • Kaiser HMO Malpractice
      • Military Malpractice
      • Hospital Security Misconduct
    • Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries
      • Brain Injuries From Medical Care
      • Lead Poisoning
      • Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
      • TBI Long-Term Care & Rehabilitation
    • Baby & Child Injuries
      • Birth Injuries
      • Infant/Child Brain Injuries
      • Shaken Baby Syndrome
      • Pediatric Anesthesia Errors
      • Jaundice/Kernicterus
      • Bacterial Meningitis
    • Sex Abuse of Children and Youths
      • Sexual Abuse Claims in Washington D.C.
    • Auto, Truck, and Motorcycle Accidents
      • Car Accidents
        • Maryland Car Accidents
        • Virginia Car Accidents
      • Truck Accidents
      • Motorcycle Accidents
      • Pedestrian Accidents
      • Bicycle Accidents
      • Train Accidents
    • Defective & Dangerous Products
    • Dangerous Drugs
      • Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
    • Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse
    • Consumer Rights
    • Accounting and Legal Malpractice
      • How To Sue Your Lawyer For Malpractice
      • Common Legal Malpractice Claims
      • Damages For Legal Malpractice
      • Missing The Deadline For A Lawsuit
  • Success
    • Verdicts & Settlements
    • What Our Clients Say
    • True Stories
  • Publications
  • Resources
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Steps in the Legal Process
    • The Jury Trial System
    • Legal Deadlines for Filing Your Personal Injury Lawsuit
    • Better Health Care Newsletter from Patrick Malone
    • Sign Up for Our Free Newsletter on Getting Better Health Care
    • Free Fact Kit for Injury Victims
    • Tips for Patient Safety and Better Health Care
    • Health Care Advocates’ Power Kit
    • For Attorneys
    • More Legal Resources
    • Fellow Inner Circle Members
    • DC Hospital Ratings Map
    • Motor Vehicle Accident Blog
    • Washington D.C. Bike Map
    • Commute Risk Calculator
  • Patient Safety Blog
    • ProtectPatientsBlog.com
  • Malpractice A-Z
  • Contact Us
Call
Contact
Blog

Rebounding to better health in the new year — and beyond

We all know about new year resolutions and their short life expectancy. Yeah, we’ll exercise more, eat less, and do all that other good stuff. And then inertia sets in, and nothing much happens.

Can this year be different?

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a sustained, terrible toll on Americans’ health. U.S. life expectancy has plunged, our deaths still exceed norms, and other important measures of our nation’s health have headed in the wrong direction. Sure, many of us are struggling back toward full normalcy. But collectively we also must recommit to greater personal wellness — not just to eke our way back to our pre-pandemic best but to exceed it and to address glaring shortfalls we might have ignored a few years ago.

Getting healthier doesn’t have to be a grim, consuming chore with heavy doses of sweat and tiny doses of foods we love.  Instead, consider the evidence-based recommendations of experts — including leading advocacy groups for disease care — for common-sense ways to feel better, be fitter, and improve the odds of avoiding costly illness. Let’s jog through at least five ways to be healthier this year and far beyond …

1. Don’t skimp on this vital nighttime activity

A good night’s rest plays a big role in keeping us healthy. That’s an idea gaining support from medical scientists, and endorsed, with special emphasis, in 2022 by the American Heart Association.

The group added sleep to its list of important ways for folks to avoid cardiovascular conditions, stay healthier, and live longer, the Washington Post reported. The association has focused on behavioral and other factors for some time now to battle the leading cause of death in this country: heart disease.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that almost 700,000 Americans died of heart disease in 2020. The ailment costs the country $230 billion annually. The heart association experts added sleep to the “Life’s Essential 8” list of safeguards, reporting this in an article published in a medical journal:

“Although there is a paucity of evidence indicating that improving sleep duration or quality reduces [cardiovascular disease] incidence, several other lines of evidence support its connection with [cardiovascular health]. For example, laboratory studies show that experimentally manipulated sleep affects blood pressure, inflammation, glucose homeostasis, and other relevant factors. Larger observational studies show that small changes in sleep at the population level are associated with changes in [cardiovascular disease]-related risk factors. Research indicates that real-world manipulation of sleep time is possible and that therefore sleep time is modifiable. Last, a limited number of studies demonstrate that real-world sleep manipulation is associated with changes in [cardiovascular disease]-related risk factors.”

The newspaper translated the research language into easier reading, thusly:

“Sleep has long been considered vital to good health, both physically and psychologically. Sleep gives the body a needed break to heal and repair itself, setting people up to function normally when they awaken. But a lack of sleep (or poor-quality sleep) puts a person at higher risk for such conditions as diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and more.”

As the Washington Post also reported of the heart association and its views on healthful zzzz’s:

“The group’s suggested goal is seven to nine hours of sleep daily for adults, and more for children (eight to 10 hours for 13- to 18-year-olds, nine to 12 hours for 6- to 12-year-olds and 10 to 16 hours for children 5 and younger).”

Researchers at the nonprofit, independent RAND Corporation are building evidence of sleep’s importance and how slumber — or the lack of it — affects everything from the academic performance of teenagers (who may need later school start times) to the physical and mental health of (sleep-deprived) African Americans. The researchers have tried, too, to quantify in economic terms how poor sleep and sleeplessness take a staggering toll exceeding $400 billion annually.
 


Experts advise, in general, that those who wish to optimize their sleep should do so with key steps: Turn in at roughly the same time in the evening – every day. Turn off electronic devices — including the TV, smartphones, digital tablets, and video and other games — long before going to sleep. Keep the room dark (don’t leave lights on), cool, quiet, and calm. Limit your eating and consumption of intoxicants (alcohol and marijuana) and stimulants (caffeine-filled sodas, tea, or coffee) before bedtime. Set the alarm and try to wake at roughly the same time each day. “Sleeping in” on weekends is a bad idea.

2. It’s not a marathon or a sprint. It’s getting up off the couch.

Graying fitness buffs may recall the boom days of amateur running, as promoted by best-selling author Jim Fixx. While jogging enthusiasts once thought nothing of trying to match Fixx’s regimens of 5- and 10-mile daily runs, popular media and many experts have reset their discussions — greatly. 

And it’s not just because Fixx dropped dead of a massive heart attack at age 52 while jogging (likely related to a family history of early heart disease). Rather, the research is showing you don’t have to necessarily burn so much shoe leather to get to a good place health-wise.

Look at popular media reports and the emphasis for most people no longer even necessarily focuses on exercise as much as movement and satisfaction or even joy, rather than accomplishment.

As many of us set our 2023 health goals, trendsetters are emphasizing the value of limiting  sedentary time, breaking up long periods of sitting with any kind of movement, or, optimally, engaging in bursts of intense, energetic activity. Picking up the pace, even briefly, can have measurable benefits, studies show.

Younger people still may pursue vigorous pastimes, including running or participating in an array of organized sports or other heartbeat-raising activities. But for many people, a satisfying way of improving health may turn on daily walks — and not necessarily for the mythical and oft-unattainable 10,000 steps (as recorded on ubiquitous electronic devices that folks strap on these days).

Whatever your preferred activity to maintain and improve your heart, circulatory, and lung health, don’t forget the benefits of stretching and staying limber and including muscle resistance or strength training in your wellness plans. As the New York Times reported of one study on longevity and various types of fitness programs:

“After adjusting for factors such as age, gender, income, education, marital status and whether they had chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease or cancer, researchers found that people who engaged in one hour of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity a week had a 15% lower mortality risk. Mortality risk was 27% lower for those who did three hours a week. But those who also took part in one to two strength-training sessions per week had an even lower mortality risk — a full 40% lower than those who didn’t exercise at all. This was roughly the difference between a nonsmoker and someone with a half-a-pack-a-day habit.”

3. New medications and diabetes care have much to say on diet and weight

Americans may have reached a milestone in their obsession with diet, weight control, and health. That’s because the care for diabetes — a leading killer in this country, as well as a prime cause of blindness and limb loss — is undergoing big changes tied to new, improved drugs. Pills now can play a big role in helping patients and doctors battle the excess weight that is a destructive part of diabetes. 

The Washington Post explained that these now-pricey prescription diabetes meds, which can help patients lose as much as a quarter of their weight, were “developed to mimic naturally occurring hormones that increase insulin production and suppresses appetite. The drugs, which include active ingredients such as tirzepatide and another molecule called semaglutide, work on brain receptors that signal satiety, creating a feeling of being full even when patients eat much less than usual, but enough to stay healthy.”

It’s a complicated issue. But these drugs, besides potentially worsening economic inequities in health care, may force the public to rethink their views about overweight friends, colleagues, and loved ones. The pharmaceutical advances may slash the stigma about excess weight and get regular folks and medical experts to see obesity not as a failure of will or self-control but instead as a chronic illness or condition.

That may be key to dealing with a serious health concern that the  federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates afflicts 40% or more of all adults: obesity.

For now, the American Diabetes Association and other health advocates say that all of us should know that sustained individual efforts can lead to weight loss and its maintenance, with significant health benefits.
 


The consensus recommendations change little and can be summarized: Eat less overall. Consume more plants, sustainable fish, and nuts. Reduce your intake of meat, pork, sugar, salt, and highly processed or commercial foods (including restaurant meals) that feature less healthy portions and ingredients. Skip the fast food and eating on the run. Instead, take time to cook (simply) and dine with friends and family.

4. All’s well? Take care of those sensory capacities to be sure

In the year ahead, fitter folks will want to maximize their perception of the wonders of the world by ensuring they take good care of their sensory capacities. This means getting quality testing, care, and assistance with hearing, vision, and senses of smell and taste.

Researchers are showing that hearing and vision are crucial not only for young people’s academic success but also for seniors’ avoiding isolation and cognitive impairment.

It can be daunting to deal with the cost of corrective gear. While a big part of eyeglasses’ steep costs can be blamed on market consolidation (too few companies make lenses and frames and market them with hefty markups under many different brands), consumers are finding new online sources that make well-reviewed products at more affordable prices.

People with minor impairment, at long last, now can get hearing aids without prescriptions, at far lower costs, with more variety of makes and models, and from over-the-counter retailers who are racing to capture a stake in a lucrative market.

The pandemic has only emphasized the health challenges that people experience as they seek to protect the senses of smell and taste. A key coronavirus symptom has been the loss of or decline in the sense of smell (which in turn can for many patients make food tasteless). Extreme temperatures and weather, a signature of climate change, also has worsened nose-clogging, smell-crushing, cough-causing allergies, experts say.

Respiratory problems — whether due to infection or allergies or other causes — are nothing to sneeze at. Don’t hesitate to work with your regular doctor or specialists to ensure that what may be an annoyance doesn’t worsen into a chronic mess. As for regular dental care, it, too, cannot be overlooked. Americans’ oral health, especially in kids, suffers greatly due to economic and racial disparities, the Pew Charitable Trusts has found, and the CDC adds this about this issue’s effects on our overall wellness:

“Oral health affects our ability to speak, smile, and eat. It also affects self-esteem, school performance, and attendance at work and school. Oral diseases — which range from cavities to gum disease to oral cancers — cause pain and disability for millions of people living in the U.S.”

5. Trusting and following doctors’ advice

Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospitals, and others in medicine have identified a significant block to bettering the nation’s health: It’s you!

Patients may grumble — correctly and with major reason — about their medical care. But  inappropriate responses can end up harming rather than helping them. How, doctors ask, can patients get better when they just ignore their conversations with their doctor, skip medications, or decide not to follow treatment plans or get recommended tests or procedures?

Let’s be clear: Patients control their own care. They have the right to decide if they will take any drug or undergo any test or procedure. They have the fundamental right to informed consent. This means they are told clearly and fully all the vital facts they need to make an intelligent decision about what treatments to have, where to get them, and from whom.

That said, your health and wellness rely on a two-way street of frank, clear talk with your medical providers. Research shows that 62% of patients with serious, chronic conditions said in a survey that they didn’t take prescribed medications because they just forgot to do so, while caregivers discovered to their distress that 28% of those studied had run out of meds and had not told their MDs they needed refills. As the American Heart Association said in a recent policy statement:

“Medications do not work in patients who do not take them. Non-adherence is one of the largest challenges faced by [medical] providers in their management of [patients’] chronic illness.”

The heart group, joined by the American Stroke Association, called on doctors and others in the health care system to determine why problems with patients occur and to resolve these, urgently. It won’t be easy. Patients, the groups noted, may get confusing, unclear, or jargon-filled information from doctors, leading them to wave off care they just do not understand. It could be that they cannot access or afford drugs, tests, or procedures, and doctors fail to reckon with these major issues. Patients may find their doctors unapproachable, uncommunicative, or too harried to talk with. They may decide that a drug or procedure doesn’t or won’t work, has bad side effects, or is unacceptably painful, invasive, or harmful.

Here’s a short, practical answer: If you do not like or respect your doctors and their clinical advice, get another opinion, or get rid of them. Don’t put your doctors on a pedestal and potentially even let them cause you injury. Find new doctors and keep doing so until you find the right caregivers for you. Do it as part of your new year plans. Ask family, friends, work colleagues, and others whose counsel you value. Check out doctors online, examining their education, experience, and affiliations with professional credentialing organizations, as well as reputable hospitals in the area. By the way, don’t fall prey to some doctors’ slick advertising. Do what you can to become a better consumer of health information, so you also avoid destructive, too prevalent medical disinformation.

Remedying deadly social isolation

Gentlemen (and ladies), it’s time to rev your friendship engines.
 
The pandemic has negatively affected so many aspects of U.S. life, and one of these has been the socializing and human networks that we all need to thrive.
 
Too many people for too long were left isolated, alone, and desperately lonely, experts say. Just look at how destructive behaviors have erupted as a result, with spikes in substance abuse, drug overdoses, reckless and lethal driving, and violence, especially with guns (owners stockpiled scary numbers of excess weapons in the early days of the pandemic).
 
Now, as clinicians, especially those who treat our mental health, try to help so many to return to fuller normalcy, the popular press is filling with news articles about grownups’ huge friendship deficits. It is not easy to build and restore strong human bonds, especially for men, the New York Times reported:
 
“American men appear to be stuck in a ‘friendship recession’ — a trend that predates the Covid-19 pandemic but that seems to have accelerated over the past several years as loneliness levels have crept up worldwide. In a 2021 survey of more than 2,000 adults in the United States, less than half of the men said they were truly satisfied with how many friends they had, while 15% said they had no close friends at all — a fivefold increase since 1990. That same survey found that men were less likely than women to rely on their friends for emotional support or to share their personal feelings with them.”
 
The newspaper quoted a published author and psychologist with expertise on friendship to offer ideas on how to improve in this vital area:
 
“I want people to understand that they are much more typical if they don’t have friendship all figured out. The data shows that so many people are lacking for community, and that is nothing to be ashamed about. I am trying to teach people how to swim upstream against a current that is pulling us all in the opposite direction — because loneliness is a societal issue that affects most of us … I’d say to swipe through your contacts or look at who you were texting this time last year and reach out. You can say something simple, like: ‘Hey, we haven’t chatted in a while. I was just thinking about you. How are you?’”
 
The newspaper reported, separately, that the machismo that traps too many men in loneliness can foster a destructive despair that also makes it tough for many guys to get the mental health care they are in dire need of:
 
“Mental health experts have long known that while women have nearly twice the rate of depression diagnoses, men are much more likely to die by suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol related deaths — sometimes referred to as deaths of despair. Nearly 80% of suicides are among men, with males over age 75 and those who work in traditionally blue collar jobs, such as mining, construction and agriculture, having the highest rates. Despite men’s higher risk of death related to mental illness, women are more likely to seek out help. In 2020, 15% of men reported receiving either psychotropic medications or therapy in the past year compared with 26% of women. This disparity in care has left experts scrambling for ways to reach more men, particularly those most at risk and who might be reluctant to talk about their mental health. Research has found that men who exhibit traditional stereotypes of masculinity, such as stoicism and self-reliance, are even less likely to ask for help.”
 
[If you or anyone you know needs help in dealing with serious mental health distress, including thoughts of suicide, please consider dialing the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline hotline number 988 or by calling 800-273-TALK (8255) or texting HOME to 741741.]
 
The New York Times also has reported that, in a rapidly graying nation, alarms are sounding about the care of single folk, especially as they age and their health needs shoot up:
 
“An estimated 6.6% of American adults aged 55 and older have no living spouse or biological children, according to a study published in 2017 in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. (Researchers often use this definition of kinlessness because spouses and children are the relatives most apt to serve as family caregivers.) About 1% fit a narrower definition — lacking a spouse or partner, children, and biological siblings. The figure rises to 3 percent among women over 75. Those aren’t high proportions, but they amount to a lot of kinless people: close to a million older Americans without a spouse or partner, children, or siblings in 2019, including about 370,000 women over 75 …
 
“The growing number of kinless seniors, who sometimes call themselves ‘elder orphans’ or ‘solo agers,’ worries researchers and advocates, because this group faces numerous disadvantages. A study of middle-aged and older adults in Canada found that those without partners or children (this study included no data on siblings) had lower levels of self-reported mental and physical health and higher levels of loneliness. They were less likely to participate in activities like sports, cultural or religious groups, or service clubs — a predictor of later cognitive impairment. Kinless Americans die earlier. Dr. Margolis and her co-authors, using data from the Health and Retirement Study, found that a decade after respondents’ initial interviews, more than 80% of seniors with partners and children had survived, compared with only about 60% of those without either. At the end of life, researchers at Mount Sinai in New York reported, people without partners and children had received fewer hours of caregiving each week and were more likely to have died in nursing homes.”

Vaccines just keep advancing — and protecting our health

Sure, some folks will sit in the darkness and refuse to turn on lights and appliances because they imagine that electricity is a kind of dark force. Some people still write with goose quills and wet ink blocks rather than take advantage of contraptions they cannot abide: modern computers.
 
For the same people who took to destroying cotton and wool mills to halt manufacturing’s advance in the 19th century, it could make sense to hop aboard the anti-vaccination movement that has perplexing popularity and gained momentum during the pandemic.
 
The anti-science, evidence-free opposition to all manner of shots to protect against debilitating, deadly, and infectious diseases runs counter to what vaccines accomplished against the novel coronavirus, Stat, a medical and science news site, has reported:
 
“The [CDC] estimates that more than 1 million Americans have died from Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic. But [a study by the nonpartisan, independent Commonwealth Fund shows] the toll would have been even worse had the U.S. had relied upon so-called natural immunity acquired through infection as the only immunological defense against the virus. Without vaccines, the country would have experienced four times as many deaths, 1.5 times more infections, and 3.8 times more hospitalizations in the time since December of 2020. The vaccines also saved the U.S. $1 trillion in additional medical costs. The study’s key message is that vaccines are ‘worth our money as taxpayers,’ said Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, an associate professor of epidemiology at Georgia Southern University, who was not involved in the study. ‘We pay for the vaccination campaign, and it works. It saves us money and it saves lives.’”
 
Still, vaccine resistance or opposition has a stubborn, sturdy following, the nonprofit, independent Kaiser Family Foundation has found, reporting:
 
“Almost 3 in 10 [28% of those surveyed in late November and early December 2022] now say that parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their school-age children, even if this creates health risks for others, up from 16% in 2019. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, there has been a 24 percentage-point increase in the share who hold this view (from 20% to 44%).”
 
As the nation battles a “triple-demic” — an especially early and virulent seasonal flu, a widespread outbreak of RSV, and the pernicious coronavirus pandemic — Republicans in Congress have forced the U.S. military to roll back its mandate affecting only one shot and one illness: the coronavirus and its vaccine. Those in the armed forces, meantime, still must receive shots against a dozen other common, contagious illnesses.
 
The fervor against vaccinations also is occurring even as the remarkable technological innovation that allowed for rapid development of a coronavirus vaccination is showing major potential against other ills in clinical trials. The mRNA vaccines, which showcase the molecular ferrying of virus-killing materials across previously impenetrable barriers, soon may be deployed against the flu, RSV, and certain kinds of cancers.
 
Medical scientists, in the meantime, also continue to make progress with a vaccination against strains of Ebola, a deadly hemorrhagic infection that has proved highly destructive in Africa. There, two of the largest recorded outbreaks in history have occurred, in 2014–16 in West Africa and in 2018 in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the Congo, more than 32,000 people were infected and more than 13,600 deaths were reported.
 
RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported. But the disease also is blamed for 2.1 million outpatient (non-hospitalization) visits annually among children younger than 5 years old, 58,000 hospitalizations among children younger than 5 years old, 177,000 hospitalizations among adults 65 years and older, 14,000 deaths among adults 65 years and older, and 100–300 deaths in children younger than 5 years old.
 
As for the flu, federal officials say, it kills more than 50,000 people on average each year. The flu and its related lung and heart complications hospitalizes on average 200,000 patients annually, studies indicate. Officials say the vaccine for the 2022 seasonal flu is proving to be an excellent match for circulating strains, making the shot safe and effective.
 
The CDC, on its website, provides handy guides with detailed information on the medical recommendations for vaccinations for children, teens, and adults. Those who want to safeguard themselves, their loved ones, and those around them can work with their pediatricians and doctors to ensure they stay up to date on their shots, notably, the latest coronavirus booster and the flu shot. 
 
Photo credits: Doctor and patient, National Cancer Institute, via Unsplash. All other photos, Unsplash.

Recent Health Care Blog Posts

Here are some recent posts on our patient safety blog that might interest you:

  • Doctors working in hospital emergency departments face chaos, violence and high stress every day, and usually they get the diagnosis and treatment right. But, and it’s a big but, as often as one in seventeen ER visits ends with a misdiagnosis, which can have deadly consequences. Those medical misdiagnosis are newly estimated by Johns Hopkins medical school researchers as a significant peril for patients across the country. Doctors in the too-often harried ER environs fail to correctly “identify serious medical conditions like stroke, sepsis and pneumonia,” leading to the deaths of as many as 250,000 patients each year, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center found in their work for a federal health care oversight agency.
  • As federal, state, and local officials seek to slash the nation’s spiking road toll of injury and death, law enforcement authorities need to crack down on the scary prevalence of motorists who get behind the wheel while intoxicated by marijuana or alcohol. Indeed, as NPR reported: “A large study by U.S. highway safety regulators found that more than half the people injured or killed in traffic crashes had one or more drugs, or alcohol, in their bloodstreams. Also, just over 54% of injured drivers had drugs or alcohol in their systems, with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an active ingredient in marijuana, the most prevalent, followed by alcohol, the study published [Dec. 13] by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found. Although the study authors say the results can’t be used to gauge drug use on the roads nationwide, they say the high number of drivers, passengers, and other road users with drugs in their systems is concerning.”
  • Seniors and their loved ones should take note of new and increasing data that researchers are developing about the risks undertaken by elderly patients who choose to undergo significant surgeries — procedures that make up a little less than half of costly operations performed in this country. The numbers about invasive medical work can be mind-changing, especially for those with age-associated conditions, the independent, nonpartisan Kaiser Health News Service reported. As KHN’s “navigating aging” columnist Judith Graham wrote: “Nearly 1 in 7 older adults die within a year of undergoing major surgery, according to an important new study that sheds much-needed light on the risks seniors face when having invasive procedures. Especially vulnerable are older patients with probable dementia (33% die within a year) and frailty (28%), as well as those having emergency surgeries (22%). Advanced age also amplifies risk: Patients who were 90 or older were six times as likely to die than those ages 65 to 69. 
  • What happens when the highly vulnerable — older, sick, injured, and debilitated people — get left in the hands of profit-obsessed private enterprises operating under woefully lax regulatory oversight? Big messes abound, as news organizations have reported after taking deep dives into the workings of the “hustle” of for-profit hospice programs, or the chronic  staffing shortages that prevail at far too many private nursing homes.
  • While critics long have ripped the Food and Drug Administration for its weak oversight of medical devices and its too cozy relationships with their makers, the federal agency and a Dutch global conglomerate have given millions of U.S. consumers a big, infuriating, prolonged exposure to just how bungled the oversight of this industry can be. As 2022 raced to its close, the Wall Street Journal has reported on this costly, inconvenient, and unacceptable mess, as has the New York Times. And now, so has Stat, the science and medical news site, which wrote this about the “flaws in device oversight” as so many regular folks have experienced with the FDA, manufacturer Philips, and CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) and BPAP or BiPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure) devices
HERE’S TO A HEALTHY 2023!

Sincerely,

Patrick Malone
Patrick Malone & Associates

Copyright © 2023 Patrick Malone & Associates P.C., All rights reserved.

Primary Sidebar

Contact Us

Focus Areas

  • Medical Malpractice
  • Birth Injury
  • Auto, Truck & Motorcycle Accidents
  • Brain & Spinal Cord Injuries
  • Defective Products
  • Dangerous Drugs
  • Nursing Home Neglect & Abuse
  • Consumer Rights
  • Accounting & Legal Malpractice

Resources

The Lawsuit Process
  • Free Fact Kit for injury victims
  • FAQs about injuries & the legal process
  • Steps in the legal process
  • Legal deadlines for your lawsuit
  • What to expect from your “independent” medical examination
  • The jury trial system
Medical Resources
  • Patient Safety Tips
  • Health Care Advocates’ Power Kit
  • DC Hospital Rating Map
  • Patient Safety Newsletter
    from Patrick Malone
For Attorneys
  • Books for Attorneys
  • Expert Witness Resources
  • Articles
  • Briefs
  • Closing Arguments in Trial
  • Medical Society Statements on Expert Witness Testimony
  • Cross Examination Transcripts

What Our Clients Say

  • Client reviews on
  • Client reviews on
View more

Patient Safety Blog by Patrick Malone & Associates

  • Communication
  • Medical Malpractice
  • Medications
  • Hospitals
  • Preventive Care
  • Research Studies
  • Accessibility of Health Care
  • Disclosure
  • Primary Care
  • Product Safety
View More Topics

Footer

Our Location

  • PATRICK MALONE & ASSOCIATES, P.C.

    1310 L Street NW
    Suite 800
    Washington, DC 20005

  • Phone: (202) 742-1500
  • Toll Free: (888) 625-6635
  • EMAIL
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Linkedin

What We Do

  • Brain And Spinal Cord Injuries
  • Medical Malpractice
  • Birth Injury
  • Auto, Truck And Motorcycle Injuries
  • Defective And Dangerous Products
  • Dangerous Drugs
  • Nursing Home Neglect And Abuse
  • Consumer Rights
  • Accounting and Legal Malpractice

Directions

Get Directions

© 2023 Patrick Malone & Associates, P.C. | All Rights Reserved | Legal Notice