According to the Texas Medical Institute of Technology, about 200,000 people die annually in the United States owing to preventable medical errors. The number injured is nearly incalculable. One medical expert says that perhaps even one in three hospital patients is injured by hospital negligence.

Dire statistics and estimates like that, as well as stories like the following, are driving a new federal government initiative focused upon preventing medical errors in hospitals and clinics.

One Chicago couple has gone public with the tragedy visited upon them by preventable error that occurred in the neonatal intensive care unit ("ICU") of a Chicago hospital where their infant son was being treated.

The child was inadvertently given 60 times the normal dose of sodium in his IV bag during a routine procedure. Blood tests taken the very same day showed the abnormally high sodium level, and a doctor gave orders to check the infant.

Unfortunately, many hours elapsed before ICU staff followed through on the order, and the child was unable to recover. He went into cardiac arrest and died.

The parents have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital, alleging the wrongful death of their son attributable to preventable human error. They say that going public with their story will hopefully bring awareness to the existence and extent of preventable medical harm being done to patients in medical facilities across the country.

Related Resource: CBS News, "Baby's death prompts war against hospital errors" April 22, 2011