The big news, lately, in the mainstream media is that there were "4,486 US troops" killed in the War in Iraq. (from about.com). CNN reports on their interactive website that 3,612 casualties for US troops or 4,801 US and Coalition total casualties. So, let's put the number of deaths at just under 5,000.
According to the mainstream media, "Medical errors in the US kill up to 100,000 people every year."(from covermd.com). The IOM states in their 1999 report that "At least 44,000 people, and perhaps as many as 98,000 people, die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented, according to estimates from two major studies." (Institute of Medicine, their report that brought us this news, "To Err is Human", 1999, can be found on their website).
Mainstream media is reporting the 98,000 number these days (look up those keywords and read for days) but I personally heard this figure in 2011 by a highly qualified doctor who was ashamed at the number of preventable medical deaths and wanted to help reduce that number.
So, research aside, the numbers that are being reported are:
a) 4,486 US Troops died since 2003 in the War in Iraq (or, 561 per year)
b) 98,000 people die from medical errors every year in the US alone.
Are we fighting the right war?
More reading:
http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/8677.htm
http://iom.edu/Reports/1999/To-Err-is-Human-Building-A-Safer-Health-System.aspx
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/usr_doc/830_Bleich_errors.pdf
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/02/medical-mistakes-part-three.aspx
More reading:
http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/8677.htm
http://iom.edu/Reports/1999/To-Err-is-Human-Building-A-Safer-Health-System.aspx
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/usr_doc/830_Bleich_errors.pdf
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/02/medical-mistakes-part-three.aspx
