Missouri Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

According to an article, about fifty percent of patients who received a certain type of radiation treatment for cancer in the past five years from CoxHealth were exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation. Authorities say they don’t know if the overdoses caused or hastened any deaths, but they are going over medical records to investigate whether or not they did.

The hospital has revealed that more than 150 patients were given doses of radiation between 20 and 70 percent more than they needed. Another group of patients only received 10 percent more than they needed. Of the entire group of patients treated with the incorrectly programmed machine, 59 percent of them died. The mistake was the result of a technician using the wrong tool to program the radiation machine. It went unnoticed for five years until a newly hired second technician questioned the calibration used by the chief physicist.

Unfortunately, radiation over-exposure has become more common than one would think. Nationally, there have been several similar stories in recent news. Radiation overdose is extremely serious and is an issue that no one ever expects to experience at a treatment facility that has taken an oath to provide the highest standard of care possible. When medical professionals fail in their duties, situations of medical negligence or malpractice may result and an injured patient is entitled to seek compensatory damages for their injuries.