Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm

January 24, 2010
By CMAC

“Mr. Jerome-Parks died several weeks later in 2007. He was 43.  A New York City hospital treating him for tongue cancer had failed to detect a computer error that directed a linear accelerator to blast his brain stem and neck with errant beams of radiation. Not once, but on three consecutive days.”


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3 Responses to “ Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm ”

  1. CMAC on January 24, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    Is this computer program error? How could 1 in 20 patients be in danger of over radiation? Where is quality control?

  2. David on January 28, 2010 at 11:13 am

    The common thread in the 2 horrific stories here is that the hospitals where these accidents occurred apparently are both substandard: the article mentions that one has chronic funding issues, and the other is known for treating a lot of the poorest patients. Both incidents could have been prevented with better trained and/or more attentive operators. And of course this fact is not going to be widely disseminated, both because the hopspital will want to keep it quiet, but also becasue of a cultural reluctance to acknowledge differing levels of care that exist. So it seems that one should not mess around with one’s treatment, but go to the best programs possible, irrespective of any other factors

  3. CMAC on February 7, 2010 at 3:05 pm

    Thanks for the informative response. How much is operator error hospital negligence and how the two are inter-related is somewhat vague but necessary information.

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