Today medical facilities are available to all. However many people die. And the main reason in stupidity! I will give in this article 20 examples that people neglect their health or are doing things without ensuring first their own or their children’s safety.

1.  Trauma is the main reason that young age people die. However, many neglect taking simple measurements that will ensure their safety. Many people drive under drug or alcohol influence (DUI). Other, neglect to do a simple thing: to fasten their seat belt!

Many parents neglect fasten their children’s seat belt as well, and a common scene is to see the children playing at the back seat without being tied! Also, many times, parents let their children seat on the front seat, even though this is contraindicated, because in case the airbag opens it may suffocate them! Other parents drive with their motorbike, having their kids sitting in front of them on the motorbike (a common scene in Greece)!

Often, women sit on the front seat holding their babies, which in case of a crash act as living airbags! Also, many motorists or cyclists drive without doing a simple thing: wearing their helmets! So in case of an accident they break their head.

Other people drive aggressively (often under alcohol or illicit drug influence), ignoring the traffic rules, and cause road traffic accidents. Unfortunately people today buy a car that runs fast, and don’t prefer safe cars (such as are Mercedes, BMW and Volvo). They don’t mind how many airbags or passive security mechanisms their new car has, but only how fast it runs. So people (especially the young) prefer fast, rather than safe automobiles!

Many people drive like idiots without paying attention to the rest cars, and cause accidents.

Pedestrians often act stupid too, when they try to cross the road the time the traffic light is red! Other, when are about to cross the road, are so close to it, that they can easily run over by a car. Also, many people try to cross the road from a point without traffic lights across.

2.  Many parents neglect their kids and do not pay any attention of what they are doing. There are many cases of children that were unattended and they were found drown in the pool! Also, drunken teenagers are left unattended by their parents or their friends and are found drown in the pool, too.

Other times, unattended by their parents children, had accidents such as burning, or falling from the stairs or the balcony etc.

Another common situation for children is to get poisoned by medical pills or other toxins (e.g. insecticides or pesticides) which their parents forgot to lock! Also, children often get electrocuted because their parents neglected to place a secure cover on their plugs. Moreover, children fall down from a balcony, because not only they were unattended, but also their parents neglected to place a safety net (fence) at their balcony.

3.  To my mind, the worst addiction of modern society is alcohol. In all western countries, almost all people (and especially the young) think that they will feel better with some beers! Alcohol intoxication has many complications such as car accidents, rapes, domestic abuse (child’s or woman’s abuse), quarrels, batteries, murders, accidents (such as falls), deaths from severe intoxication etc. All these do not need to occur only on an alcoholic, but can occur to an intoxicated (from high alcohol intake) person as well! 

4.  Alcoholics do live shorter than other people! They are susceptible to severe diseases such as fatal bleeding from esophageal varices, or hepatic coma/ encephalopathy, liver failure, Wernick Korsakoff's neuropathy, thiamine deficiency, malnutrition, peptic ulcers, laryngeal cancer etc.

They also may die from a traffic accidents (when driving drunk), or from an accident (such as a fall), or may drown in a swimming pool, or die from severe intoxication, or during a battery etc.

5.  Smoking is another addiction that even though destroys the health; many people continue to smoke until their doctor consults them to cut smoking, after a heart attack or a stroke! Many still continue to smoke, even though they have a severe medical condition e.g. a heart attack! In Greece there are patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – usually smoking related) that smoke even with the oxygen cannula placed on their nose! Other smoke in front of their children making them passive smokers, something that has many complications on their health (such as susceptibility to asthma)!

Passive smokers do suffer from the same problems than smokers. People think that smoke causes only cancers. However, most deaths from smoking are the ones from CHD (coronary heart disease) and CVD (cerebrovascular disease) that may manifest with a heart attack or a stroke, respectively. Smoking tobacco may cause several disease such as heart attack, stroke, cancer (lungs, laryngeal, pancreatic, etc), COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), Burger’s disease (with foot gangrene), osteoporosis etc.

6.  Young people do extremely stupid things (usually intoxicated from alcohol) such as stupid ‘stunts’ in order to make a video and upload it on the internet. Many times people risk their lives in order to show off e.g. I recently saw an ‘amazing’ video where a teenager, in order to drink a literally flammable drink, burned his throat! 

7.  Many young people like risky extreme hobbies such as jumping from mountains or bridges with a rope on their body or with a parachute, or doing canoe kayak, or scuba diving. Unfortunately, many people do extreme sports without proper (or without any) training from an expert. However, ironically, the supposed more experienced people have more often accidents, because they overestimate their selves and their capability.

8.  In medicine we say ‘safety comes first’. However, many doctors and nurses neglect safety e.g. they don’t simply wash their hands (and don’t clean their stethoscope with an alcohol swab) after each patient’s examination (so they transfer bugs in all the hospital), they do not dispose needles on a special bin, they don’t wear protective equipment (goggles, mask, head cover, gown, shoe covers) when indicated (e.g. on trauma or a communicable disease) etc.

9.  Many people haven’t got medi – care insurance. Some have no money for it, but it should be the number 1 priority for all. It is unacceptable for people who do have money, not to pay their medi – care insurance, because they wrong prioritize things, e.g. they prefer buying the new I – phone or the new plasma TV, that paying their medi – care insurance! 

10.  Many people neglect taking regularly a medical checkup and wait first for a disease (e.g. a heart attack) to make them visit a doctor! Other have, for many weeks or even months or years, devastating or recurrent symptoms and do not visit a doctor or visit him/her only when it is too late e.g. when the doctor announces them that have a terminal stage cancer! 

11.  Many people do not visit a doctor even on emergencies e.g. there are people that have died after a head trauma that initially considered it as minor. An actor recently died with this way.

12.  Medical mistakes (malpractice) are a common reason that people die today. However doctors performance is reduced whey are working overtimes exhausting hours.

13.  Drugs (with the meaning of medication) are another common reason of death. People (especially the elderly) may die from drugs side effects (e.g. hypokalemia or hyperkalaemia – low or high potassium blood levels, respectively – from a diuretic), contraindications (e.g. combining thyroxin or an anti-platelet drug with warfarin), counteractions (e.g. combining β’ with a Calcium blocker), or from wrong indications (i.e. they take a drug that do not need).

However, many people act with stupidity and do not visit a doctor to prescribe them a drug, but consult a neighbor or friend or the chemist! 

14.  Cardiovascular (heart attack) or cerebrovascular (stroke) disease are the main causes of death after mid age. However most of the risk factors of these diseases are preventable. People continue to eat junk food and do not mind if lipids (such as cholesterol) will obstruct their arteries, causing a heart attack. Most people never check their blood pressure, another risk factor for stroke and heart attack. Other, found hypertensive (with high blood pressure) or with high blood cholesterol, continue eating salt and junk food rich to ‘trans’ fat. Most people have a sedentary life and never or rarely exercise. 

Many people do not mind at all modifying their risk factors such as cut smoking, having a healthy diet (poor in fats, sugar and salt), reducing their weight (if obese), doing regularly exercise (such as jogging), controlling their blood pressure and blood sugar levels etc. 

So, most people modify their risk factors only after a serious disease (e.g. after a heart attack), however many times this serious disease (e.g. the heart attack) may present with a cardiac arrest! This could be prevented simply by controlling a modifiable risk factor such as high blood lipid levels or high blood pressure.

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, used to say that ‘prevention is better than treatment’. Today, even though many sophisticated medical examination methods tests exist (Lab or image), people neglect to modify their risk factors and prevent diseases. They don’t even do a regular blood check up and an ECG. 

To consider how much people neglect their health, just think the teenagers with acne that wait their face to be filled with scars and only then they visit a dermatologist! There are also people with an illness that do not do what they doctor said, e.g. they don’t take their pills regularly, they don’t visit again the doctor on recurrence etc.

Often people that visit the ER (emergency Room) of a hospital are so stupid that ask the doctor just to simple give them a drug and let them go (as if the doctor was a chemist!), and in case the doctor suggests admission for further examinations, they leave the hospital, without even signing the refusal papers! Other patients are given instructions to return to the hospital if their symptoms recur, however they don’t! In the above 2 examples, patients may be so ungrateful, that may even press charges to the doctors for negligence, although they were the one who neglected themselves! 

15.  Patients with diabetes neglect losing weight and/ or doing regularly exercise, ignoring that diabetes mellitus is a high atherogenic disease (namely it is a disease that obstruct early the arteries causing early heart attack or stroke). Other patients neglect taking their drugs. Also many neglect attending the regular checkups for their kidneys, eyes and foots. Thus, many die from renal insufficiency, or become blind, or lose their leg, respectively.

16.  Obese people often don’t try to lose weight following a diet or doing regularly exercise or consulting a surgeon (on morbid obesity). They seem to ignore the fact that obese people live shorter than the others! Obesity causes many diseases and is a modifiable risk factor for CHD (coronary heart disease) & heart attack, DM (diabetes mellitus) and hypertension. Obese people are also susceptible to respiratory failure after a disease (e.g. an infection, even flu!) or after an operation. They are high risk patients and they can easily die from massive pulmonary embolism, heart attack, stroke, respiratory failure etc.

17.  Another factor that people die is abuse. However, it may also be prevented. Many people who are verbally or physically or sexually or psychologically or economically abused (usually women, children, elderly and pregnant) sustain for many years the abuse and are afraid to reveal it at the police, or at least at their friends or neighbors. So abuse is perpetuating on a vicious cycle!

The main 3 reason that people don’t report abuse are firstly the fear of the abuser’s revenge, and secondary the economical depended by the abusers makes people afraid that will end up to the road if they lose this economical support from their abuser! The third reason is that usually abusers are family relatives or family members! 

18.  People who take illicit drugs die fast. Most people who take narcotics die from pulmonary edema or apnea, usually after an overdose). Drug seekers may kill in order to find money to buy their next dose. They can even kill their own mother! Also by needle sharing they are exposed to communicable diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis B & C. IV (intravenous) drug abusers rarely are treated by any kind of therapy program for drug addicts. The rates off recurrence are huge. They usually die. Today even children are drug addicts!

19.  People who don’t do safe sex are exposed to communicable venereal diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis B. Their excuse is that they don’t want to reduce pleasure during sex; however it is the woman’s responsibility of making love with a partner that refuses to wear a condom. Not wearing condoms increases also the chance for undesirable pregnancies. So negligence of safe sex is the main reason of undesirable pregnancies that end up to abortions.

People that use excuse that they did not know are still responsible, because not only they did not ask anyone (e.g. their doctor or their community nurse) about safe sex, but also they not search about it (e.g. from books, reliable web articles etc.).

20.  Finally, aggressive and especially the impulsive people tend to become easily victims of accidents or other problems. An example is road traffic accidents caused by aggressive and impulsive drivers who do not pay attention to any rule. Impulsive people tend to follow risky behaviors and attitudes that lead them to accidents. These people also tend to chose extreme sports that may endanger their own life!

CONCLUSION

In conclusion people today die from stupidity! They neglect their selves safety (e.g. they don’t fasten their seat belt before start driving) or neglect their children’s safety (e.g. they leave them unattended at the pool), or neglect doing regularly medical checkups or modifying risk factors for a disease (such as avoiding fats to prevent heart disease), or neglect ceasing addictions (such as alcohol and cigarette), or have risky behavior (e.g. aggressive driving, not safe sex, extreme sports etc). Generally most people ignore the dogma that ‘safety comes first’.