Review – Medical Error

Eric Hatley’s last day started out normal for a UPS driver. However, he ended up in the crossfire of gang warfare and wound up in Parkland Hospital OR. Life for Dr. Anna McIntyre changed that day due to a medical records mix-up on the patient.

Shortly thereafter, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) was knocking on her door for over-prescribing Vicodin through excessive prescriptions, with high numbers of pills and refills, which she states are forged precriptions. A day later, the Dallas Police, Investigators Green and Dowling, show up to prove she was behind the excessive number of prescriptions floating throughout the neighborhood-a criminal trying to make a bust in the market.

Then Anna finds someone has maxed-out her credit cards and were getting into her banking account. On top all that off, she gets a medical report stating she is HIV positive, as her insurance information was being used by someone else, like Eric Hatley’s case. Mix all these circumstances with romance, muggings, and attempted murders, and you are hooked!

My first thoughts about Medical Error had to do with identity theft that we hear so much about these days. How to be careful to secure our identity, and then what to do once it is breached. Anna found out the hard way that she was way more careless than she realized, and way too impulsive to solve the problem.

I’m not sure which was more intriguing though, the medical issues or the identity theft. Both kept me riveted as circumstances changed almost daily, as new information was forthcoming. Only problem was, they didn’t know the source of the issues.

I love medical reads, and Dr. Mabry was definitely on top of the medical school/hospital issues at hand, from medial malpractice, lawsuits, suspensions, etc. Had me checking up some new terms so I knew what he was referring to, but that made it all that much more interesting for me-learned new information.

My only minor complaint is the continuous clich?s, i.e, ‘like fish to water, air to a bird, like a dog with a bone,’ etc., yet some of the clich?s turned out to be some great word pictures!

If you love medicine and a great mystery, Dr. Mabry’s book, Medical Error, is one you need to read! You won’t be disappointed with the twists and turns in the plot up to the very last chapter. Was it a co-worker, prior patient, the DEA personnel, the police, or even possibly Nick that was perpetrating all this? You’ll have to read it to find out! My lips are sealed.