Western Healthcare Is The 3rd Leading Cause Of Death In The U.S.

This is according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical. Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health added up all the deaths which were caused by medical intervention and discovered that only heart disease and cancer kill more people than Western medicine.

The annual death rates she discovered were:

 12,000 — unnecessary surgery
   7,000 — medication errors in hospitals
 20,000 — other errors in hospitals
 80,000 — infections in hospitals
106,000 — non-error, effects of drugs

Total  250,000 — deaths per year from medical causes!!
This is behind heart disease which kills 700,142 people and cancer which kills 553,768. However it is almost 87,000 more people than are killed by the official #3 killer, stroke.

Source: Journal American Medical Association July 26, 2000; 284(4):483-5 
 

Top 10 Killers In U.S. (according to the National Center for Health Statistics)
Latest Final Data for U.S. Death Rates (2001 figures)

1. Heart disease: 700,142

2. Cancer: 553,768

3. Stroke: 163,538

4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 123,013

5. Accidents (unintentional injuries): 101,537

6. Diabetes: 71,372

7. Influenza/Pneumonia: 62,034

8. Alzheimer's disease: 53,852

9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 39,480

10. Septicemia: 32,238

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm