A Tale of Two Cases: Preventing Errors in Oncology and Medicine

Abstract

Betsy Lehman, a knowledgeable health reporter for the Boston Globe, died due to an overdose of the chemotherapy that was supposed to treat her breast cancer [1]. Willie King, a diabetic patient in Florida, already concerned about having to live with one leg, woke up to discover that the surgical team amputated the wrong limb [2]. Ben Kolb, a 7-year-old boy from St. Lucie, Florida, died after the surgeon who was operating his ear injected epinephrine instead of the local anesthetic lidocaine [3]. The common thread: medical errors.