Florida Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Blog

Life Saving Radiation Treatment Turned Lethal, Part 1 | Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Pinellas County

What: medical error | medical mistake | radiation equipment
Who:  overworked technician | over-radiated patient
Where:  New Jersey | Texas

A New Jersey medical team over-radiated 36 cancer patients at a veteran's hospital because of a lack of experience in operating a machine that generates high-powered beams of radiation. The mistakes continued for months because the hospital had no system in place to catch the medical errors.

A lack of experience together with new technology and overworked technicians presents the obvious question - are patients safe from medical errors? While it's undeniable the advances in radiation equipment are successful in helping to fight disease, more risks are at hand. It has created new avenues for error, and the mistakes are more difficult to detect. Manufacturers are also at blame. Records indicate at times, machines are sold before software bugs are identified and worked out, according to a New York Times news article.

A Texas man is now burdened with two external bags, one for urine, and the other for fecal matter. The reason why...he was severely over-radiated from a medical technician who says he was overworked and didn't catch the mistake. Authorities were never told of the incident because rules did not require the admission.

The advances are wonderful, but what protocols are in place in hospitals to protect  patients from fatal mistakes? The answer to that depends on the regulations posted by your state. Unfortunately, patients being tested are not guaranteed the radiological devices have been inspected thoroughly and that the technician is properly trained and qualified.

The director for the Office of Radiation Control in Alabama, Kirkesy Whatley attests to that. Depending on the state, he says, "you may get two to three times more of the radiation you need."

All of this makes the patient extremely vulnerable.