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LA Patients Get Deadly Blast of Radiation in Screw-Up

Hospital hits hundreds of stroke patients with 8 times the normal dose

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 13, 2009 9:00 AM CDT
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(Newser) – A mistake at LA’s famed Cedars-Sinai hospital has subjected more than 200 patients to dangerous levels of radiation. Everyone who has come to the hospital with a suspected stroke since February 2008 has gotten eight times the normal dose of radiation, the LA Times reports. That was when technicians programmed a new stroke diagnosis protocol into the machine—overriding its default guidelines in the process.

The screw-up came to light this August, when one patient contacted the hospital complaining that his hair was falling out after a scan. The hospital then checked up on the other 206 people who’d been scanned, and discovered that 40% were suffering from patchy hair loss, and often reddened skin. Radiation exposure causes cancer, but the risk is lower in these patients, whose median age is 70, because they are likely to die of other causes first, a hospital spokesman said.

A high-speed Cat Scan machine is seen in this file photo.
A high-speed Cat Scan machine is seen in this file photo.   (Getty Images)
A high-speed Cat Scan machine is seen in this file photo.
A high-speed Cat Scan machine is seen in this file photo.   (Getty Images)
A patient gets a CT scan in this file photo.
A patient gets a CT scan in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 19 comments
bewilderbeast
Oct 14, 2009 11:35 AM CDT
Oh, so that's OK then? Thanks, dontlikethings. They needed 100, they got 800. They should be happy. And anyway they're gonna die. And the "so called" journalists should have buried the story so as not to risk advertising revenue? Nice world you advocate.
riffran
Oct 13, 2009 7:16 AM CDT
THAT is why you need to be carefull in the medical feild...and KNOW what the hell you are doing...if I am not familiar with a drug, or procedure, I look it up prior to utilizing it, in addition to that if a Dr. orders something I think is innapropriate I look it up the question the order...Mistakes do happen of course, but the rad techs should have done a little more research, into acceptable limits and should have been freshly aware of them prior to the reprogramming...I work closely with the rad techs every day in the ER...and have never seen them burn patient...unless it was part of oncology treatment
dax
Oct 13, 2009 5:15 AM CDT
Medical malpractice by the "national healthcare system of tomorrow" brought to you by the private healthcare industry TODAY ! ! ! ! ---- Another artifact of people preferring the devil they know over the devil they don't know.
Health • US

 
CT scans • radiation • stroke • CT scanner • Cedars Sinai Hospital

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