Suppose you picked up today’s newspaper and learned that a large jet had crashed, killing everyone on board. You would be sad, and would probably wonder if you knew anyone who died.

Now suppose you opened your newspaper every day and saw that same headline. You’d be shocked and upset. Eventually you would know someone who had died. Worse, you might have been a passenger yourself, meaning, you’d never see that headline.

Medical errors kill almost 100,000 Americans each year. That’s the equivalent of a large jet crashing every day. And that doesn’t count the patients who survive those mistakes but may be further debilitated because of them.

Each year, billions of drug prescriptions are written and administered to patients. Of those, 1.5 million mistakes are made in hospitals alone, an average of one error per patient per day. Patients were given the wrong drug, or the wrong dose, or the drug was administered at the wrong time. No one knows how many mistakes were made in people’s homes.

Surgical errors are another type of mistake. They include removing the wrong limbs or organs, or performing the wrong surgery on the wrong patient. That happens about 120 times a year.

At least 5 million hospital patients acquire deadly infections each year. At highest risk are the elderly, anyone who needs a catheter, recent surgical patients, or someone who has been injured causing an open wound. Most of these infections, with names like MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus), VRE and C. Difficile, are preventable. Most cannot be effectively treated. Yet few hospitals and other facilities are taking the steps needed to prevent them.

These are just a few examples of medical errors that kill patients every day. Each one is like its own fleet of jets, ready to crash. We patients need to be aware of these dangers, and be prepared to hold our providers accountable for preventing them. We need to insist they wash their hands to prevent infections, review our prescriptions, and double check before surgery.

This Friday, July 25, is Patient Safety Awareness Day. Please take some time to reflect on keeping yourself safe when you access medical care. Turn on your headlights, light a candle, or pause for a moment of silence. Share these messages with others.

Someday it may save your life, or the life of a loved one.