A very sensible remark by a pathologist sent me over here:
http://ethicalpathology.blogspot.com/
Where the most current entry describes a 50 year old man who came into a hospital with shortness of breath and stayed for a while. He stayed a _month_, long enough to be "seen by a hematologist, an endocrinologist, a kidney specialist, a podiatrist, two cardiologists, a cardiac electrophysiologist, an infectious-diseases specialist, a pulmonologist, an ear-nose-throat specialist, a urologist, a gastroenterologist, a neurologist, a nutritionist, a general surgeon, a thoracic surgeon and a pain specialist." and have "12 procedures, including cardiac catheterization, a pacemaker implant and a bone-marrow biopsy (to work-up chronic anemia)."
Really, the Cascade in the context of normal birth seems almost mild by comparison.
WTF? _Shortness of breath_? This is _insane_. The person commenting on this has very sensible things to say on the subject; I invite you to read. (_Podiatrist_? Did they diagnose him with diabetes or something? Grrrr.)
http://ethicalpathology.blogspot.com/2008/03/excessive-medical-testing-hits-ny-times.html