By Michael Wong, JD (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
The Exception to the “Everything in a Box is Safe” Rule
In today’s world of science and engineering, we have a natural tendency to assume that, if it’s been engineered and it’s “in a box”, it must be ok and safe. While this may usually be true, there are exceptions to every rule. According to the FDA (Food & Drug Administration), more than 80,000 deaths and 1.7 million injuries have been linked to medical devices in the past decade.
One exception to the “everything in a box is safe” rule may be particularly true of a medical device called patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump, which when not paired with continuous monitoring may be deadly.