Deadly Errors

By Allen Wyler and Allen Wyler

Book Overview

Brain surgeon Allen Wyler has written a thriller on the bleeding edge of new-millennium hospital technology. When a brain surgeon discovers that a revolutionary computerized medical-records system is responsible for a series of patient deaths---and threatens many more---he must navigate a treacherous maze of conspiracy. And risk his life to expose it. * A comatose man is given a fatal dose of insulin in the Emergency Room---even though he isn't diabetic. * An ulcer patient dies of hemolytic shock after receiving a transfusion---of the wrong blood type. * A recovering heart patient receives a double dose of the same medication---triggering a fatal cardiac arrest. When the doctors and nurses at Seattle's prestigious Maynard Medical Center start making preventable drug and treatment errors that kill their patients, neurosurgeon Dr. Tyler Mathews suspects that something is murderously wrong with the hospital's highly touted new "Med-InDx" electronic medical record. But when he airs his concerns to the hospital's upper management, he's met with stonewalling, skepticism---and threats. Millions of dollars, and the future of Med-InDx, are at stake. And powerful corporate forces aren't about to let their potential profits evaporate. Tyler soon finds that his career, his marriage, and his very life are in jeopardy---along with the lives of countless innocent patients.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765313111
• ISBN13: 9780765313119
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Forge
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Thoughts from another physician.

Dr Wyler has hit the nail on the head with his accurate and revealing descriptions of the interaction of physicians in the operating room. The story line is very convencing and suspenseful. Not unlike a Clancey novel. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this 'medical thriller'.

Anacortes Dave

A real skull-thumper! Dr. Wyler's skill as a word painter brings the reader along on a chilling, stroke-inducing, pulse-pounding ride through the improbable thicket of medicine, greed and Gatesian tech that tames Robin Cook. Throw your bookmark away -- you won't need it!

Superb medical thriller

With this, his debut novel, Dr. Allen Wyler instantly joins the ranks of Cook, Crichton, Gerritsen, Reichs, and the rest of the best. There are none of the rough edges one expects in a first novel. Dr. Wyler writes fluently. As a practicing neurosurgeon, Wyler effortlessly provides convincing background detail, but his skill as a writer prevents that detail from ever becoming heavy-handed or intrusive. The plotting is excellent and the characterizations three-dimensional. Unusually for a first-time author, Wyler has mastered "drive", that quality that keeps the reader turning pages until the end. Expect to see this guy on the NYT bestseller list before long.

Frightening

Among medical thrillers, the most frightening plots are those in which anyone who enters the hospital could become a victim of the malevolent forces driving the story. Deadly Errors is that kind of book. The idea of a computerized quality control system gone haywire so that it randomly changes medication orders with lethal consequences is about the worst kind of scenario a prospective patient could face. Even in Coma, the book that started the medical thriller genre, there was some selection process in choosing the victims. Here, if you're checked in, you could be next. It's a great hook for a story. I was also impressed with the writing. The author is a neurosurgeon. That alone doesn't automatically mean he would know how to write hospital scenes that drag the reader into the action. But I can tell you this, Wyler certainly has the knack. Outstanding. Wyler is also great at the quiet scenes that involve emotional conflict between the main character and his wife. When I read those sections I didn't feel as though I was reading a made-up story. It seemed real to me. No writer can do better than that. So I'd say Wyler is off to a fine start. More please.

Deadly Errors by Dr. Allen Tyler is crammed-packed with action and suspense.

The author, Dr. Allen Wyler, has successfully wedded the computer industry and the medical profession in a tightly woven novel that keeps the reader involved from the first page. Surgeon Dr. Matthews is struggling with a sinking marriage while trying to discover the real cause of patient's deaths. A new company has joined his hospital, offering a sophisticated software program designed to track medications for the benefit of both doctor and patient. Dr. Matthews believes a bug is in the system which causes errors but cannot locate the right contacts to address the problem. The hospital judges his skills, or lack of them, to be the cause and he is released. Wyler has the enviable talent to present medical information that is easy to understand by a non-medical audience. This is a fast paced novel that engages the reader from the first page and carries through, well written and carefully plotted with believable dialogue and characters drawn with a fine pen. Reminisent of Faust, where the frailties of human nature can present a heavy burden to both sides of good and evil, this book keeps the reader guessing to the very last. Highly recommended for those mystery readers who like to pick up some education while reading an intriguing novel !