Medical mistakes occur with alarming frequency in this country. Nightly newscasts and daily newspapers tell of botched surgeries, mistaken patient identities, careless overdoses, and neglected diagnoses. You may have dismissed these stories as unfortunate mistakes, misunderstandings, or just isolated incidents with the occasional bad doctor.

Wall of Silence reveals that these medical mistakes are not rare incidents with the occasional bad doctor. In fact, the real-life stories in this book show that medical mistakes are increasing in frequency—and worse, that the system is designed more to cover up these errors than prevent them.