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medpundit |
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Wednesday, March 06, 2002The article, ostensibly about a new drug to treat life-threatening infections, begins with the attention-grabbing but misleading statement that a healthy, middle-aged man died of a common cold. He couldn't and he didn't. Many paragraphs later the writer reveals the man died of a rare but deadly form of bacterial pneumonia, not the cold or the viral pneumonia the author leads with. This revelation only comes after yet more misleading drama as the writer relates the tale of the man's illness. She accuses his doctor of misdiagnosing him and treating him improperly; never mind that his presenting symptoms were not consistent with pneumonia or with sepsis. Truth and fairness are sacrificed for a dramatic lead-in to her story. In the process she misleads her readers into thinking that a common cold and fever have a good chance of turning deadly and that they can't rely on their doctors to make the proper diagnosis. This is especially disappointing because the writer is Jane Brody who usually writes clear and cogent health care columns. Is she getting old and weary or just succumbing to editorial pressure to jazz up her stories? posted by Sydney on 3/06/2002 09:01:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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