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VA Doc Botched 92 of 116 Cancer Operations

Philly prostate patients routinely had treatment placed in wrong organ

By Katherine Thompson, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 21, 2009 11:32 AM CDT

(Newser) – The VA Hospital in Philadelphia performed 116 operations to treat prostate cancer before an investigation found that 92 of the them had been seriously botched, the New York Times reports. The VA considered Dr. Gary Kao an expert who didn't need oversight, and allowed him to cover up his mistakes without consequences.

When Kao accidentally implanted 40 radioactive "seeds" into a patient's bladder instead of his prostate, he re-wrote his surgical plan to conform to the flawed procedure. When that same patient then needed more radiation, another mistake led to dangerous radiation in his rectum. Now, investigators are scrambling to figure out why no one noticed the sub-par work long ago.

[Images (1)]

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Investigators say that Dr. Gary Kao botched 92 of 116 cancer treatments over a course of six years. (Shutterstock)

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 4 comments

riffran

Jun 22, 2009 6:05 AM CDT

Well Zaius is right on the money on one aspect.....Doctors do need a more stringent oversite...a process in where the more "issues" come up the more closer the scrutiny, and the more severe the penalty if found at fault

Doctor-Zaius

Jun 21, 2009 11:25 AM CDT

But what about the 24 operations he didn't fuck up?

freethemall

Jun 21, 2009 9:11 AM CDT

This reminds me of an episode of the sitcom "Maude". A surgeon portrayed in this episode was having trouble getting malpractice insurance. He said something to this effect: "I'll have to give up operating on people. Either that or I'll have to be very very careful".

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Science • US

prostate cancer • medical malpractice • cancer treatment • radiation • VA Hospital

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VA Doc Botched 92 of 116 Cancer Operations