Bryon died of medical complications.  The odds of what happened to him were 0.3%.  I will never know why he was in the 0.3%, and not the 99.7% that has an uneventful recovery.

This graphic is from the NHS.  For those who may be unfamiliar, NHS stands for National Health Service which is the healthcare system in Great Britain.  I am not surprised.  Their election graphics are phenomenal.  If you get a chance, watch the coverage of the British elections on Thursday night.  Therefore, it doesn’t surprise me that they have great graphics in healthcare as well.  I was also told when I was advocating for the Multiple Sclerosis a few weeks ago that the NHS has the best literature for MS patients.   

Before you think I am veering into a post about socialized medicine, you are wrong.  I just want to talk about this awesome graph.  I don’t know the purpose of this graph.  Is it due to the recent terror attacks and is the purpose of this to keep people from fearing terrorism?  Or maybe the purpose of this graph is to raise awareness for heart disease or cancer? I don’t know.

I am not against raising awareness for the more common diseases like heart disease and cancer.  Awareness usually makes patients aware of the disease and the warning signs and thus they are more likely to seek medical attention during the earlier stages of a disease and that produces a better outcome.  Awareness usually increases funds for research through grants and donations.  As far as I am concerned, awareness for any disease that has the potential to kill is a good thing.

But according to this chart, someone has a better chance of being murdered or dying in an “undetermined event” than dying of medical complications.  Therefore, people usually don’t think that it is a possibility.   Because people who live in first world countries do not think that these events happen.  But they do.  

After Bryon died, I kept playing the events in my head over and over again.  But then I realized that I am not a doctor.  I do not have a medical degree.  I can only speak for living in the U.S., but here there is a feeling that the healthcare we receive here is the best.  We believe that doctors will take of you.  If you have a problem, the doctors will figure this out.  But unlike cancer ribbons and wear red in February for heart disease, there is no awareness for medical complications.  How do we as a society change that?  How do we prevent medical complications from happening?