People with Lyme & confections often have their symptoms dismissed, and medicine has a long record of getting things wrong and slowly correcting itself before seemingly repeating the mistakes. When doctors claim they’re correct, it’s more delusion than anything else. Every 10, 50 years etc, it’s clear much of what they were doing was legalised murder. Who do you actually trust? Yourself or a medical professional?
Both figures are rough estimates worked out for this page, not documented totals, and the causes are not directly comparable.
An educational summary of well-documented medical failures. Figures are approximate and sometimes disputed. Many of these were failures of regulators, companies or hospital systems as much as of individual doctors.
Bloodletting and leeches
For centuries doctors drained blood to treat almost everything, including fevers, infections and inflammation. In 1799 George Washington died after a throat infection, with roughly 40% of his blood removed by some estimates. In the 1830s France imported tens of millions of leeches a year. When Pierre Louis counted outcomes in the 1830s, bloodletting showed no benefit.
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It faded through the 1800s as numbers-based studies replaced tradition, and it is now used only for a few conditions such as haemochromatosis.
Mercury as medicine
Mercury was given for syphilis, as a purgative (calomel), and in teething powders for babies. It caused mouth ulcers, tooth loss, nerve damage and kidney damage. Teething powders caused "pink disease" (acrodynia) in infants.
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Penicillin replaced mercury for syphilis in the 1940s, and mercury teething powders were taken off the market in the 1950s.
Arsenic as medicine
Fowler's solution, which contained arsenic, was prescribed for skin disease, fevers and asthma for well over a century. Long-term use is linked to skin, lung and other cancers. Arsenic-based Salvarsan (1910) was the first effective syphilis drug, but it was toxic and hard to give safely.
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Antibiotics and safer drugs replaced arsenic medicines.
Early smallpox vaccination
Jenner's vaccine used cowpox material taken from sores, scabs and fluid, often passed arm to arm from one person to the next. This spread other infections, including syphilis (a well-known 1861 outbreak in Rivalta, Italy infected dozens of children), hepatitis and skin infections. Compulsory vaccination laws also led to protests in Britain.
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Arm-to-arm vaccination was banned in Britain in 1898 and calf lymph with purification replaced it. Smallpox was eventually eradicated in 1980.
Doctors spreading childbed fever
In Vienna, mothers on the doctors' maternity ward died of childbed fever at several times the rate seen on the midwives' ward. Doctors were moving from autopsies to deliveries without washing their hands. Ignaz Semmelweis showed that handwashing cut deaths sharply, but many doctors rejected the idea.
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Germ theory later explained why it worked, and hand hygiene became standard practice.
Opium syrups for babies
Products such as Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup contained morphine and were sold to calm teething babies. Infants died from overdoses.
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The US Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 required narcotics to be listed on labels.
Hysteria
Women with symptoms doctors could not explain were diagnosed with "hysteria" and treated with rest cures, surgery or confinement. Some had conditions that were simply not understood at the time.
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The diagnosis was dropped from the US psychiatric diagnosis manual in 1980.
Heroin as a cough medicine
Bayer marketed heroin as a safe cough remedy and a non-addictive substitute for morphine.
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Bayer stopped selling it around 1910, and the US Harrison Act of 1914 began controlling narcotics.
St. Louis and Camden contamination
Diphtheria antitoxin made from a horse with tetanus killed 13 children in St. Louis. Contaminated smallpox vaccine killed about 9 children in Camden, New Jersey.
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The US Biologics Control Act of 1902 introduced licensing and inspection of vaccine makers.
Mulkowal plague vaccine
In India, 19 people injected from one contaminated bottle of plague vaccine all developed tetanus and died. Everyone injected from other bottles stayed well. The head of the laboratory, Waldemar Haffkine, was blamed at first, and many people then refused the vaccine.
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Rules for sterile preparation and bottling of vaccines were tightened, though the exact way the bacteria got in was never settled.
Forced sterilisation
Under eugenics laws, tens of thousands of people in the US, judged "unfit" by doctors and officials, were sterilised without proper consent, and many more in other countries. The US Supreme Court upheld it in 1927.
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Laws were repealed from the 1960s and 1970s, and some states have since apologised or paid compensation.
Routine tonsil removal
Removing children's tonsils became routine and was often done with little evidence of benefit. Studies in the 1930s and 1940s found it was being done far more often than needed.
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Tonsillectomy is now recommended only in specific cases.
Radium "cures"
Radioactive water such as Radithor was sold as a health tonic. The wealthy industrialist Eben Byers drank large amounts and died of radium poisoning in 1932.
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The US authorities restricted radioactive health claims.
Bundaberg tragedy
In Australia, 21 children were given a diphtheria vaccine mixture contaminated with Staphylococcus bacteria. Twelve died, eleven of them within 24 hours.
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A royal commission recommended antiseptic in multi-dose vials, clear labelling and better training. The old mixture was phased out and the families were compensated.
Lübeck BCG disaster
A BCG tuberculosis vaccine in Germany was contaminated with live TB bacteria. About 250 babies were given it and roughly 70 died.
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Stricter rules on how vaccines are prepared and tested.
Thorotrast
This radioactive X-ray contrast agent was given to many patients. Decades later it caused liver cancer and leukaemia.
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It was replaced by safer contrast agents.
Doctors endorsing cigarettes
Cigarette adverts used doctors and claims such as "more doctors smoke Camels". Medical journals also ran tobacco adverts.
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The British Doctors Study in the 1950s showed the link to lung cancer, and advertising was eventually banned.
Nazi and Unit 731 experiments
Doctors in Nazi Germany and in Japan's Unit 731 carried out torture and killing in the name of research.
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The 1947 Nuremberg Code set out the first modern rules on voluntary consent.
Tuskegee syphilis study
About 400 Black men with syphilis in the US were left untreated so researchers could watch the disease progress. Penicillin became the standard treatment in the 1940s and was withheld.
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Public exposure in 1972 led to US informed-consent laws and ethics review boards.
Lobotomy
Surgery that cut into the brain was used for mental illness, and its inventor won a Nobel Prize in 1949. Tens of thousands of people were operated on, often with little real consent, and many were left with lasting disability or died.
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Antipsychotic drugs and stronger ethics rules ended its use.
Elixir Sulfanilamide
A liquid antibiotic was made with a poisonous solvent and had never been tested for safety. Over 100 people died, many of them children.
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The US passed the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, requiring safety testing before sale.
Diethylstilbestrol (DES)
This hormone was prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage, although it did not work. Their daughters had higher rates of a rare vaginal cancer and fertility problems.
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The US advised against its use in pregnancy in 1971.
Yellow fever vaccine and hepatitis
A batch of yellow fever vaccine for US troops used human serum to stabilise it, and the serum carried hepatitis B. More than 28,000 service members developed jaundice, and dozens died.
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Human serum was removed from vaccine production.
Oxygen for premature babies
Too much oxygen given to premature babies caused blindness in around 10,000 infants before the cause was understood.
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Controlled trials found the problem, and oxygen levels are now carefully monitored.
X-rays in pregnancy
Pelvic X-rays were routine in pregnancy. Alice Stewart's 1956 study linked them to childhood cancer, but it was doubted for years.
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Use was curtailed from the 1970s.
Guatemala syphilis experiments
US researchers deliberately infected people in Guatemala with syphilis and other diseases, without their consent.
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It was uncovered in 2010 and the US government formally apologised.
Chloramphenicol "grey baby" syndrome
Newborns were given doses of this antibiotic based on adult amounts and developed grey baby syndrome, which was often fatal. Babies cannot clear the drug as adults do.
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Doses for infants are now set by weight and age.
Clioquinol and SMON in Japan
A widely sold anti-diarrhoea drug caused a nerve and eye disease called SMON. Japan's government estimated 11,000 people were affected, and other estimates are higher. Many were left paralysed or blind.
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Japan halted its use in 1970 and a court ruled the drug was the cause in 1978. It was not fully withdrawn there until 1985.
Cutter polio vaccine incident
Polio vaccine from one US manufacturer contained live virus. About 40,000 children developed mild polio, 164 were severely paralysed and 10 died.
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Manufacturing and government oversight of vaccines was tightened.
Willowbrook hepatitis study
At a New York institution, children with intellectual disabilities were deliberately infected with hepatitis so researchers could study the disease. Parents were pressured to consent.
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Exposed in 1972, it contributed to stricter rules on consent in research on children.
Thalidomide
Given for morning sickness, thalidomide caused severe birth defects in around 10,000 babies across dozens of countries. In the US, FDA reviewer Frances Kelsey refused to approve it.
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Drug testing laws were strengthened, including the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendments in the US, and a UK drug safety committee was set up in 1963.
Valproate, Primodos and pelvic mesh
The 2020 Cumberlege Review looked at three UK cases: the epilepsy drug sodium valproate, the hormone pregnancy test Primodos, and pelvic mesh implants. It estimated around 20,000 UK children were harmed by valproate taken in pregnancy. A causal link for Primodos was not established. The review found women's concerns were dismissed for years.
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It recommended a Patient Safety Commissioner and better listening to patients.
Growth hormone from the dead
Growth hormone taken from the pituitary glands of dead people was given to children. Some batches carried the prion that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and more than 200 people worldwide have died.
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Lab-made growth hormone replaced it in 1985.
Early RSV vaccine trials
In US trials, an experimental vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus made later infections worse. In one study, 80% of vaccinated children who caught RSV were hospitalised, comparado con 5% of unvaccinated children. Two vaccinated toddlers died.
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The vaccine was abandoned. The lesson shaped RSV vaccine research for more than 50 years, and approved RSV vaccines were not available until the 2020s.
UK contaminated blood scandal
Around 30,000 people in the UK were infected with hepatitis C or HIV through blood products and transfusions, and about 3,000 have died. The 2024 final report found failures to act on known risks, and a cover-up.
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Compensation schemes, and tougher blood safety rules.
Dalkon Shield
An intrauterine contraceptive device sold in the early 1970s was linked to serious pelvic infections, miscarriages and at least four deaths in the US. Its design made infections easier to spread.
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It was taken off the market. The maker faced thousands of lawsuits, and device regulation in the US was tightened in 1976.
Harold Shipman
A GP convicted of murdering 15 patients. An inquiry concluded he killed at least 215. Warning signs went unnoticed for years.
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Reform of death certification, GP monitoring and medical regulation.
US swine flu vaccine
A mass vaccination programme was linked to about 450 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, with around 30 deaths. The programme was stopped. The expected pandemic never arrived.
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Closer monitoring of vaccine side effects.
Stomach ulcers blamed on stress
For decades, ulcers were blamed on stress and spicy food. Barry Marshall and Robin Warren showed most were caused by a bacterium, H. pylori. Their finding was doubted for years, and Marshall drank a culture of the bacteria to prove it.
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They won the Nobel Prize in 2005, and antibiotics are now the standard treatment.
Bristol heart surgery
Around 30 more babies died after heart surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary than would have been expected. Staff raised concerns that were ignored for years.
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The 2001 Kennedy Inquiry led to public reporting of surgical results and tougher standards.
Therac-25 radiation overdoses
A radiation therapy machine controlled largely by software gave six patients massive overdoses in the US and Canada. At least three died. Problems reported by hospitals were not properly investigated.
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It became a standard case study in safety engineering, and rules for medical device software and incident reporting were strengthened.
Heart rhythm drugs after heart attacks
Doctors widely gave drugs that suppressed abnormal heart rhythms after heart attacks, assuming this would save lives. The CAST trial found that people on encainide or flecainide died more often than those on placebo (89 deaths in total, with arrhythmic deaths 43 on the drugs against 16 on placebo).
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The drugs were largely dropped for this use. It is a standard example of why a treatment that fixes a measurement still has to be tested for whether patients live longer.
Opioid epidemic
Drug companies, especially Purdue Pharma with OxyContin, downplayed the risk of addiction while prescribing grew. Well over 500,000 people have died of opioid overdoses in the US.
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Purdue pleaded guilty to criminal charges and large settlements followed.
Fen-phen
This diet drug combination was withdrawn after reports of heart valve damage and a serious lung condition.
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Closer scrutiny of weight loss drugs.
Wakefield MMR paper
A doctor published a paper linking the MMR vaccine to autism. Investigations found the data was manipulated. The paper was retracted in 2010 and he was struck off the UK medical register. Vaccination rates fell and measles outbreaks followed.
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Many large studies since have found no link between MMR and autism.
LYMErix Lyme vaccine
A Lyme disease vaccine was withdrawn from sale in the US in 2002 after sales fell. Some patients claimed it caused arthritis. Reviews by the US FDA and others did not find proof of that link, but the controversy and lawsuits damaged confidence.
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No human Lyme vaccine has been approved since. A newer candidate has been in late-stage trials, so check for the latest status.
RotaShield
A rotavirus vaccine was withdrawn within a year after a bowel blockage called intussusception was found in roughly 1 in 10,000 babies.
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The problem was spotted by safety monitoring, and newer rotavirus vaccines are watched for the same risk.
Preventable medical errors
A US Institute of Medicine report estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 people a year died in hospitals from preventable medical errors. The figures were disputed, and later estimates were higher.
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Hospitals introduced error reporting, checklists and patient safety programmes.
Jesse Gelsinger gene therapy trial
A teenager with a mild metabolic condition died four days after receiving a gene therapy injection in a University of Pennsylvania trial that was not designed to help him. Investigators found problems with eligibility, reporting of earlier side effects and informed consent.
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The FDA suspended the programme, trial monitoring and reporting were tightened, and universities restricted researchers' financial stakes in their own trials.
Ellen Roche, Johns Hopkins
A healthy 24-year-old laboratory technician died after inhaling hexamethonium, an unapproved drug, in an asthma study. Investigators found an earlier reaction had not been reported and volunteers had not been told the drug was experimental.
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Federally funded research at Johns Hopkins was briefly suspended and oversight of volunteer studies was reviewed.
Baycol (cerivastatin)
A cholesterol-lowering statin was withdrawn worldwide after reports of a severe muscle breakdown that could cause kidney failure. About 52 deaths were recorded, mostly when it was taken with another drug or at the highest dose.
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The maker withdrew it voluntarily, and warnings about combining statins with certain other drugs were strengthened.
Hormone replacement therapy
HRT was widely prescribed partly in the belief that it protected the heart. The 2002 Women's Health Initiative trial found higher risks of breast cancer, stroke and blood clots.
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Prescribing fell sharply. Later analysis suggests the risks depend on age and timing.
Vioxx
This painkiller was withdrawn after it was linked to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. Estimates of excess cases run into the tens of thousands. The manufacturer was criticised for how it handled early warning signs.
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More drug trials must now be registered publicly in advance.
Metal-on-metal hip replacements
Some metal-on-metal hips shed metal particles into the body, causing tissue damage, pain and repeat surgery. Regulators were criticised for approving implants with little long-term testing.
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Tighter rules for approving implants.
Mid Staffordshire hospital
An NHS hospital trust in England had higher than expected death rates and was found to have serious failures in basic care, including neglect on wards. Estimates of avoidable deaths ranged from several hundred to about 1,200, but the public inquiry said it was unsafe to name a specific number.
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The Francis Inquiry made recommendations on patient safety, openness and a duty of candour, and led to a new hospital inspection regime in England.
Contaminated heparin
A blood-thinning drug made from material supplied from China was contaminated with a cheap look-alike chemical that routine tests missed. In the US, 81 deaths had been linked to it by April 2008, along with more than 100 serious reactions.
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The drug was recalled, testing methods were changed and regulators increased inspection of overseas suppliers.
Pandemrix
A swine flu vaccine used in Europe was linked to narcolepsy, with roughly 1,300 cases, mostly in children and teenagers.
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The risk was found through monitoring after rollout, and some affected people have received compensation.
PIP breast implants
A French company used unapproved industrial-grade silicone in breast implants sold worldwide, and they ruptured more often. About 300,000 women had them.
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European regulators tightened controls on medical devices.
Contaminated steroid injections
A US compounding pharmacy shipped steroid injections contaminated with fungus. By late 2013 there were about 750 cases of fungal meningitis and other infections, and 64 people had died.
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The pharmacy closed and its staff were prosecuted. A new US law in 2013 tightened oversight of large compounding pharmacies.
Ian Paterson
A breast surgeon was jailed for carrying out unnecessary and damaging operations on patients. Inquiries found that concerns raised about him were not acted on effectively.
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A review of how private and NHS care is overseen.
Dengvaxia, Philippines
The dengue vaccine was found to raise risk in children who had never had dengue, after hundreds of thousands had been vaccinated. Trust in vaccines then collapsed.
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Measles outbreaks followed, and the programme was suspended.
AstraZeneca and J&J clotting disorder
A rare clotting disorder was linked to these COVID vaccines. In the UK it was roughly 1 in 50,000 first doses in some younger groups.
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Monitoring picked it up within weeks, and use was restricted by age.
Sources for many figures: Bundaberg tragedy, Full Fact on Mid Staffordshire, CDC on the 2012 meningitis outbreak, CAST trial, Jesse Gelsinger. Further reading: Cumberlege Review, First Do No Harm and the Infected Blood Inquiry final report.