A recent article from scientificamerican.com reported on a serious hospital error that has left residents of Los Angeles and citizens throughout the United States shocked and questioning the standard of care provided by hospitals and medical professionals, as well as the quality of medical devices. According to the report, health care workers at the Los Angeles Cedars-Sinai Medical Center are responsible for an error that was made when resetting a computed tomography (CT) scanner. As a result, 206 patients who underwent an x-ray CT scan received eight times the normal dose of radiation during brain scans over an eighteen month timeframe. Shockingly, this mistake remained unnoticed from February 2008 until this August after a stroke patient notified the hospital that he had experienced significant hair loss after having a scan.
Apparently, the CT scan had to be re-set to override the preprogrammed instructions and accommodate new protocol for CT brain perfusion scans so that doctors could properly examine any disruptions in the flow of blood to brain tissue and diagnose strokes. As it turned out, the use of this protocol caused the amount of radiation to be eight times higher than the expected dose.
There is no doubt that radiation exposure is a serious issue, and there is no excuse for hospital professionals to make a mistake that puts trusting and innocent patients at risk of radiation overdose, nor is it acceptable for a defective medical device to go unnoticed by its manufacturers or be used on patients by doctors.
As the skilled CT scan radiation exposure attorneys at Panish, Shea & Boyle, LLP continue to monitor the inaccurately calibrated and potentially defective GE CT scan machines, we advise anyone who has experienced radiation overdose from such machines to contact our firm. Our lawyers are well-versed in product liability, medical malpractice, personal injury, and pharmaceutical litigation, lending us the wide range of legal experience and knowledge that you need to successfully obtain compensation that you deserve from negligent parties. For more information about defective CAT scanners , or if you or a loved one has experienced any ill-effects from such scans, please call Panish, Shea & Boyle, LLP at 1-800-591-8116.
Source:http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=hospital-error-leads-to-ct-scan-rad-2009-10-13
