New Information on Radiation Treatments

Cancer, a word that many have become more and more scared of over the years. I have dealt with this with this mysterious word. It was one of the most life changing things I have been through, but lucky enough for me I did not need very much radiation. It still was very worry-some that something could happen, and I wouldn’t be ok afterwards. Fortunately I have been cancer free for 2 years, with no complications or no more radiation treatments.

These people in the story on the MSNBC site were not as lucky, and unfortunately, for them there interaction was fatal. Scott Jerome –Parks had tongue cancer and underwent radiation treatments in New York City hospital, unnoticed by the radiation techs there happened to be a computer error when that sent radiation blasts using a linear accelerator to his brain stem and neck. Not only did he endure this treatment once, but also three times in three consecutive days. This lead Scott to have a fatal radiation overdose, which entailed him becoming deaf, losing some of his sight, lost ability to swallow, burned, loss of teeth, ulcers in his mouth and throat, nauseated, and finally unable to breath. Scott’s last wish to figure out what exactly was happening with the radiation that was causing such problems.

This did not just happened once; this also happened with Alexandra Jn-Charles a breast cancer patient taking treatments at the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. She underwent 27 days of overdosed radiation; each time was three times the dose prescribed. The linear accelerator with a missing filter burned a whole through her chest, leaving a vast hole so painful she almost considered suicide.

Of course there are many cases of cancer that need radiation and everything works out fine, but they do not know of the harm that could happen or if technology goes wrong. In the MSNBC report the NY Times researched many of the flaws of the technology that could happen, like software failing, faulty programming, poor safety procedures, and insufficient training of staff. There is only an estimated guess on how many cases go wrong, they are using under reported and some states don’t require they be reported at all.

These are just some cases that have been swept under the rug, a Philadelphia hospital gave the radiation dose to more than 90 patients. In 2005, a Florida hospital disclosed 77 brain cancer patients that received more than 50 % more radiation than prescribed because the linear accelerator was programmed incorrectly for a year.

So after really reading into this report I think people should know of all the harmful things that could happen with dealing with radiation treatment, no ifs, ans, or buts. It can work very well for most, but there those cases that can happen incorrectly. Everyone should be informed equally of the chances that something could become harmful. Trying to research male practices on cancer radiation treatment, not much came up, it seems like everywhere they are just hiding the negative of what radiation can do. Maybe they are doing this to frighten cancer patient, or something. I believe that everyone should be well aware of the conflicts.