Times: Patients Dying From Over Exposure in Radiation Therapy

The New York Times has a disturbing article on how negligence in the use of radiology machines has led to fatal radiation overdoses. It is astonishing since most people assume that these machines are calibrated to avoid such operator error.

The article below features the tragic case of Scott Jerome-Parks who died in 2007 at the age of 43. He was being treated for tongue cancer at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan.

Another patient at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, was given 300 percent more radiation than recommended in each of 27 days of radiation therapy. Alexandra Jn-Charles, 32, was given the treatment with a linear accelerator missing a filter that ultimately burned a hole in her chest, leaving a gaping wound. She also died.

What is particularly alarming is that New York hospitals are protected from being identified in many such cases due to long-standing laws passed at the insistence of the medical lobby.

For the full story, click here.