Then I continued reading and noted the reference to Lyme Disease...

From what I read on this forum sounds like there are a lot of "sleepy docs" out there.

Study: Sleepy Doctors Make More Errors

"From prescribing overdoses to sticking a tube in the wrong vein, doctors-in-training made one-third more serious mistakes during typically long shifts than they did during "short" 16-hour ones, a Harvard study found.

At the same time, those first-year interns were wired up with electrodes to measure how often their sleepy eyes rolled, and they ended up nodding off more than five times a night during long shifts.

SNIP

During the longer shifts, the interns made five times as many diagnostic errors, such as missing the bull's-eye rash that showed that Lyme disease was causing a patient's heart problem. They made 36 percent more significant medical errors of all kinds."

Click on link to read entire article
http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=4&aid=1028072602_5307_lead_story

I think that a lot of docs are also just in plain denial!

I just talk to a friend that lives in the norther part of my state who ask her ped to test her daughter.

The ped said there have been no confirmed cases in Arkansas!

Well, what is my daughter and I am sure hundreds of others? Tell me please!

Needed to vent.

ANYONE without sleep for that period of time will make mistakes.

It is amazing! We all stand amazed that the lid is on the stats...

Kara,

I agree. It SHOULD be against the law. Sounds like a type of conditioning which MAKES NO SENSE...

Wonder if pilots are allowed to fly that long without sleep. Wonder if the ones who supervise these MD's with LONG hours would be willing to fly with pilots who have the same hours?