Did medical error kill drug magnate?
By Mary Jo Melone 10/16/2009 © Health News Florida Samuel Hamad, former president of a global pharmaceutical company and prominent Sarasota developer, died last December of “complications” following a liver transplant, according to his obituary. But a lawsuit says the complication was really a medical error that resulted in a deadly infection. The complaint says Hamad suffered a gruesome death, including bleeding from the eyes and ears. If the allegations are true, it shows that medical errors can harm even a former titan of the medical industry – someone who had money, knowledge and connections. It reinforces lessons from the 1999 Institute of Medicine report To Err Is Human, which estimated that at least 44,000 Americans died each year because of medical errors caused by systems failures. A follow-up report this year found few of the report’s recommendations had been implemented. “One decade later, we can’t say whether we are any better off today than when the IOM first sounded the a
