Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, but often times the victims of these errors never learn the full story. According to a news report by ABC affiliate WEWS-TV, a “culture of secrecy” within medicine helps keep information related to errors secret. While hospitals closely monitor medical errors, its patients and the public are almost never allowed to access to the detailed information hospitals compile about medical errors.

The ABC story describes what happened to Donald Adanich when he was operated on at an outpatient clinic. While Mr. Adanich was in surgery, he swallowed some medical gauze. The surgeons and nurses didn’t notice that he had swallowed the gauze, which was left in his stomach for three weeks.

The gauze was eventually discovered, but neither Donald Adanich nor his wife was told that the gauze was the reason he became sick. They only found out about the error when they sought a second opinion, and learned about the gauze after another doctor reviewed his medical records. Mr. Adanich never recovered, and he died in August of 2015, approximately six months after the dental implant procedure.

You can watch the TV report here:

[EXCLUSIVE Investigation | Culture of Secrecy: How hospitals hide medical malpractice](http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/exclusive-newschannel5-investigation-culture-of-secrecy-how-hospitals-hide-medical-malpractice)

While hospitals must report any major disciplinary actions against physicians to the National Practitioner Data Bank, it is illegal to publicize the names of the subjects or their employers. “There’s no way that the public can go online and find out that, for example, the doctor you’re thinking of asking to be your doctor has had payments made 150 times in the last year,” Maxwell Mehlman, director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western Reserve University, told ABC.

The “culture of secrecy” described in the ABC report extends beyond the laws and regulations that prevent publication of internal hospital error investigations. In our cases, nurses are afraid that testifying about an error could cause the loss of their employment, so they frequently “can’t remember.” Physicians often refuse to testify against other physicians, because they may become “blacklisted” or ostracized in their medical community.

This culture of silence protecting the medical establishment is part of the reason why medical malpractice cases are so difficult. Changing this culture will require a tectonic shift in priorities. However, patient safety will never truly come first until this culture is changed.