Death by Misadventure

A death by misadventure, as recorded by coroners and on death certificates and associated documents, is one that is principally endorsed to an accident that occurred due to a risk that was taken voluntarily. In contrast, when a cause of death is scheduled as an accident rather than a misadventure, this implies no unreasonable willful risk. Misadventure is a legally-defined manner of death: a way by which an actual cause of death (trauma, exposure, etc.) was allowed to occur. For example, a death caused by an illicit drug overdose may be ruled a death by misadventure as the user ignored the risks of the drugs. Misadventure is a form of unnatural death, a category that also includes accident, suicide, and homicide. Therapeutic misadventure can be defined as an injury or an adverse event caused by medical management rather than by an underlying disease. Unfortunately one of the maximum contributors to iatrogenic injury is human error. The impending types of misadventure are infinite. Medication errors are a major part of this, being responsible for over 70% of cases that cause serious harm. However, many medication errors caused by slips, lapses, technical errors and mistakes are preventable; intentional violations of safe operating procedures are not. Despite the endeavour of health-care professions to stick to the rule of 'first, do no harm', in reality this is difficult to achieve all of the time. Identifying and correcting system (latent) errors will, in the end, provide a safer health-care system.

Key words: Death, Health-care system, Misadventure, Therapeutic misadventure.

Address for Correspondence:

Dr. L. Reddenna, Pharm.D, Ph.D
Associate Professor
Department of Pharmacy Practice
Balaji College of Pharmacy, Rudrampeta,
Ananthapuramu-515001.
Andra Pradesh.