An estimated 1 in 20 cancer patients could be injured by excessive radiation treatments, according to The New York Times. In an exhaustive study published this week, the paper reported half of all such cases locally may never reach a New York City medical malpractice attorney because of chronic underreporting and a lack of oversight.
The Times reported the case of a 43-year-old man treated for tongue cancer at a New York City hospital who received faulty radiation treatment because of a computer error. The hospital error caused his brain and neck to be exposed to errant beams of radiation during three consecutive days of treatment.
New York state health officials have since cautioned hospitals to be extra careful with linear accelerators, the machines that generate the beams of high-energy radiation.
Yet, on the day of the state warning, a New York hospital began the first of 27 days of radiation overdoses on a 32-year-old Brooklyn woman being treated for breast cancer, according to The Times. Each dose the woman received was three times the prescribed amount.
While radiation treatment has enhanced the treatment of many types of cancer, such instances of medical malpractice have been shielded from the public by government, doctors and hospitals.
The average American is receiving far more medical radiation than ever before -- the average lifetime dose of diagnostic radiation treatment has increased sevenfold in the last 30 years.
The Times reviewed thousands of pages of documents in uncovering the dangers of safety rule violations and defective hospital equipment in cases of New York hospital malpractice involving radiation overdoses.
The paper reported no agency is in charge of overseeing medical radiation treatments, accidents are chronically underreported and the true scope of the problem is anyone's guess.
In June, a Philadelphia hospital gave the wrong radiation treatments to 90 patients with prostate cancer; In 2005, a Florida hospital revealed 77 brain cancer patients received 50 percent more radiation than prescribed.
Experts told The Times an estimated 1 in 20 patients will suffer radiation malpractice injuries and half off all such cases go unreported.
