(NaturalNews) We’ve all seen an occasional headline of a medical mistake passing by. These errors include surgery gone wrong, misdiagnosis, administering the wrong dosage of medication or neglecting the care of a patient. However, these seemingly rare cases of medical errors happen more often that you may think.

According to a new study, led by Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr. Marty Makary, medical mistakes are the third most deadly killer of Americans, accounting for more than 250,000 deaths each year. This figure far surpasses the current third leading cause of death – respiratory disease – on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) list.

Heart disease and cancer take the lead with around 600,000 deaths each. The Johns Hopkins experts now found that medical errors should take third place, at 251,000, followed by respiratory diseases, which account for about 150,000 deaths each year. (Click to Article)