Every year, 12,000 Americans die from complications due to surgeries that weren’t even necessary in the first place. For those keeping score, that’s more than 200,000 people dead from so-called iatrogenic causes (from the Ancient Greek iatrós, meaning “doctor”). And that figure is based only on the data on hospitalized patients. In outpatient settings—for instance, at your doctor’s office—prescription drug side effects alone may result in 199,000 additional deaths.8
