By Cheree Cleghorn, Editor

A doctor’s husband died from cancer. His tests showed the cancer very early, when it was far more treatable. It was missed.

We can’t know for sure if he would have survived because cancer is unpredictable. What we do know is that the many mistakes made did not provide him or his wife the opportunity to find out whether proper care could have saved his life.

The doctor-widow made the painful lessons they learned into a highly-readable book, What You Don’t Know Can Kill You: A Physician’s Radical Guide to Conquering the Obstacles to Excellent Medical Care.

The summary of the book says that it offers readers:

1. Helps you flag any signs of mis-diagnosis and misleading analysis of symptoms.

2. Prevent mis-communications among specialists from having dire consequences.

3. Stay safe in the hospital and bypass its dangers.

4. Choose the health care plan without falling into the “uncovered services” trap.

The author, Dr. Laura Nathanson, a pediatrician, provides her own unique, simple method for understanding what mysterious medical reports say. Almost any motivated patient or patient’s own researcher can use it.

If this author offered only this section, this book could be a life-saver.

There is, however, much more than that.

How to keep patients safer in the hospital, for instance, is an equally strong section. One caution: Readers could easily be overwhelmed by her step-by-step illustrations of everything that could go wrong. If all of them happened often, nobody would get out of a hospital alive. Instead, use this section to understand the most common trouble spots so you can focus your attention there. If you feel you need more detail at any time, you can re-read the relevant passages.

She offers plenty of worksheet formats you can copy to help you do the work she recommends.

Finally, she gives you her view of health plans, problems patients have with them and how you may avoid those.

Tests: Root Cause Of Millions of Errors

Let’s take a look at her advice about tests, which are used on almost every patient who sees a doctor. This should give you an idea about the value you may receive from reading her book.

One root cause of preventable medical errors and deaths is testing problems. Since most patients have tests all of the time, read carefully. This section affects the greatest number of people, one of whom may be you or someone you love.

Were tests are performed and handled correctly? Were the tests interpreted by someone who had the time and experience? How was your patient’s test labeled (with someone else’s name, for instance)? How are reports sent (or are not) sent to the clinician? Did the clinician actually read them or not?

Are you nervous yet?

By reading your reports as you go, you can help stop trouble in its tracks using her ingenious method.

To have devised a way patients and families can decipher and analyze doctor’s possible analytic errors is an accomplishment indeed. It helps you catch what busy doctors may have not. That’s worth five stars right there.

As someone who has worked in hospitals, her description of the staffing challenges and safety hazards ring true. This section is as strong on the one on testing but it involves much more time, more vigilance. As discussed above, this kind of monitoring is not something you can do independently in the same way that you can checking tests. A lot happens in a hurry in a hospital. It’s a blur.

The author’s emphasis on the points at which patients are moved from one area of the hospital to another—-the “hand-off” in hospital-speak—-and the hazards of miscommunication and other problems is right on. Don’t let people take your patient away while you wait in the hospital room. After reading this, you’ll be sure to remember to go along, equipped as she suggests.

One caution: While this is an excellent book, readers need to understand that this information alone does not make you responsible for how an illness or injury comes out You can, as the author urges, be a “sentinel,” a person who is watching, checking, going with the patient and speaking up, loudly, if necessary.

However, you are not a physician. Be careful about how much of the enormous responsibility for patient safety you are taking on in your mind and heart. No lay person should feel responsible if things go poorly despite his or her best efforts. This is a serious matter for those who want to help patients they love. This author had the letters, M.D., after her name. Those two letters did not help her in time. Just be aware of the hazards of thinking you can beat the system. Many times, you can, but there are many when you cannot. When that happens, it is not your failure. For your own wellbeing, it is important to keep that in mind.

This book is a fast read. If you find yourself in the middle of a medical situation that seems to be making no sense to you or seems to be moving too fast for you to keep up, grab it and read.Another book we recommend is: AfterShock: What to Do When The Doctor Gives You—-Or Someone You Love—a Devastating Diagnosis, by Jessie Gruman, Ph.D.

If you or your patient seem to be headed for difficulties, reading both of these would be wise. They complement one another. AfterShock is a 10-step action plan and an overview of how to respond to bad news. Dr. Nathanson’s book focuses on the areas of highest risk.

What You Don’t Know Can Kill You: A Physician’s Radical Guide to Conquering the Obstacles to Excellent Medical Care, by Laura Nathanson, M.D.

AfterShock: What to Do When The Doctor Gives You—-Or Someone You Love—a Devastating Diagnosis, by Jessie Gruman, Ph.D.