The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care--and How to Fix It

by Marty Makary

unnecessary medical care. They don’t hold back. A general surgeon from Sudan told me of a patient who was told by another surgeon that she needed a mastectomy of both her breasts for a small lump in one breast that was never biopsied. Not only that, the woman was told she needed to have the surgery within 24 hours to prevent the cancer from spreading. Of course, the recommendation was bogus, and the tight time frame was nothing more than a technique to manipulate patients into having surgery and not getting another opinion so the surgeon doesn’t lose business. A pediatrician in North Africa told me a child was taken for heart surgery and only had the skin cut open, then immediately sewn shut at the time of surgery. The parents were told by the surgeon that a heart operation had been performed. Another surgeon told me of a doctor who, while doing a colon operation, removed a kidney to transplant into another patient without asking the patient. The scandal of inappropriate medical care can sometimes be criminal.