It is well established that between 210,000 to 440,000 people needlessly die each year from medical negligence. That makes medical errors the third leading cause of death in our country. Healthcare providers, however, have failed to treat this as an urgent problem and have refused to take steps to lower the mortality rate. On Tuesday, a baby died while undergoing heart surgery at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Florida, making her the ninth infant to pass away after such a procedure in just the last 3 years at that one hospital. That accounts for the heart surgery program at St. Mary’s having a 12.5% mortality rate for open heart surgery, which is more than three times the national average.