You've heard those hospital horror stories where the surgeon removes the wrong body part or operates on the wrong patient or accidentally leaves medical equipment in the person they were operating on.
你一定听说过那些医院里发生的可怕事件，比如外科医生切除了身体错误的部分；做手术把病人弄错了；或者意外将医疗器械留在了病人身体里等等。Even scarier, perhaps, is a new study in the latest edition of BMJ suggesting most medical errors go unobserved, at least in the official record.
更为骇人听闻的是，也许就像《英国医学期刊》最新报道的，大部分的医疗事故根本未被统计进来，至少在官方记录里是这样的。In fact, the study, from doctors at Johns Hopkins, suggests medical errors may kill more people than lower respiratory diseases like emphysema and bronchitis do. That would make these medical mistakes the third leading cause of death in the United States. That would place medical errors right behind heart disease and cancer.
事实上，由约翰霍普金斯大学医学院的教授们进行的这项研究显示，每年因医疗事故死亡的病人远远高于因患气肿或支气管炎等呼吸道疾病死亡的人数。医疗事故成为了美国仅次于心脏病和癌症的第三大致死原因。
Through their analysis of four other studies examining death rate information, the doctors estimate there are at least 251,454 deaths due to medical errors annually in the United States. The authors believe the number is actually much higher, as home and nursing home deaths are not counted in that total.
通过另外四项对死亡率信息的分析，这些教授们估计，在美国每年至少有25万1454人死于医疗事故。笔者相信真实数据一定远不止这个数，因为在家里或疗养院死亡的数字并未被统计在内。The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the inspector general in 2008 reported 180,000 deaths by medical error among Medicare patients alone.
美国健康和人类服务监察办公室在2008年曾报道过，因医疗事故致死的人数为18万，不过它仅追踪的是有医疗保险的病人。Dr. Martin Makary and Dr. Michael Daniel, who did the study, hope their analysis will lead to real reform in a health care system they argue is letting patients down.
进行这项研究的马丁·马卡里教授和迈克尔·丹尼尔教授表示，希望他们的分析能带来医疗系统真正的改革，因为当前的情况实在太让患者失望了。One reason there's such a wide range of numbers is because accurate data on these kinds of deaths is surprisingly sparse. That's in part because death certificates don't ask for enough data, Makary said.
这些数据差异如此大，原因之一是对这类死亡的精确统计惊人的少。马卡里教授表示，这部分是由于患者的死亡证明上并未要求显示完整的信息。Makary believes there should be a space on the certificate that asks if the death is related to a medical error. If the answer is yes, Makary suggests the doctor should have some legal protection so the certificate is not something that could be used in a lawsuit.
马卡里相信，死亡证明应该是有改善的空间的，以此确认死亡是否与医疗事故有关。如果有关，他建议医生应当受一定的法律保护，即该死亡证明不应当导致医生被起诉。There are barcodes that could be placed on each piece of surgical equipment so a team could account for every tool at the end of a surgery, for example. Makary believes many hospitals don't invest in technology that could prevent errors because the hospitals don't always realize how big the problem is and don't make it a priority. Funding for research on medical errors is also extremely limited.
我们还可以给每个医疗器械贴上条形码，这样医生们在手术结束后就可清点数量避免意外。马卡里认为很多医院不愿意去投资科技以预防医疗事故，因为这些医院还未意识到这些问题有多严重，也不会优先考虑这一块。而用于医疗事故研究的资金也是少得可怜。The problem is not unique to the United States. Earlier studies have shown undercounted medical errors are a problem in hospitals throughout the world.
这个问题不是只有美国才有。更早的研究显示，数不胜数的医疗事故一直是全球各地医院的一大困扰。Doctors are human and they are going to make mistakes, Makary said.
马卡里表示，医生毕竟也是人，难免会犯错误。