When We Do Harm Quotes

“In all cases, life had already ceased for the patient. In fact, life had ceased before the code started. That was the time when the patient had stopped breathing or the heart had stopped beating. That was when the patient had really died. Yet we officially record the time of death as the moment when we adjourn our battle, not the moment the cells have adjourned theirs.”
― Danielle Ofri MD PhD, When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error

“In a strange way, death is actually one of the steps of the code. It isn't listed in the algorithm, of course, but it's there. The first step. Everyone knows it, but no one will say it. Even though the patient has already died from the devastation of disease, the code presses on until someone "calls it." Then, and only then, can death be acknowledged. It is a wrenching combination of human grief and quotidian bureaucracy.”
― Danielle Ofri MD PhD, When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error

“The US spends almost 18% of its GDP on healthcare, about $3.3 trillion. Denmark, by contrast, spends only 10% of its GDP on healthcare, about $3 billion—less than what Americans collectively spend on dental floss and tattoos.4”
― Danielle Ofri, When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error