It just seemed too absurd to be true, but there it was in the August 2, 2004 edition of Newsweek I picked up the other day: "According to HealthGrades, the health-care-rating organization that conducted the study, needless deaths averaged 195,000 a year in 2000, 2001, and 2002. 'That's the equivalent of 390 jumbo jets full of people dying each year,' says Dr. Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs."

My mind struggled feebly to conjure up 390 jumbo jets going up in flames - it imploded hopelessly on crash number 8.

I started to wonder what it all meant. How could so many