Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyers Blog

Philadelphia cancer patients and others across the country undergoing targeted radiation treatments to beat cancer may actually be harming their bodies and causing severe and permanent injuries.

Targeted radiation treatments allow doctors to more efficiently and accurately attack a tumor; however studies have shown that this new form of radiation has opened the door to more frequent and severe errors. Software glitches, inexperienced technicians, and the lack of a failsafe are just some of the factors that are causing patients to suffer unjustly from overexposure of radiation.

People are exposed to more radiation than ever before and over half of all cancer patients undergo some sort of radiation to diagnose or treat the disease. A new type of radiation called Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy or I.M.R.T. is a directed beam of radiation that doctors can lead directly to the patient's tumor. This new technology can help spare healthy cells and allow doctors to treat patients with radiation where it would have been too risky in the past.

The I.M.R.T. is completely computer controlled. With the help of an oncologist software designs a treatment specific to each patient set to undergo the radiation. Oncologists can selected the designed treatment or work with the software to modify it. Next the technician or oncologist responsible for administering the radiation enters the dose of the radiation, followed by the location of treatment and finally prompts the machine to guide the radiation directly to the tumor.

While there is no failsafe system installed in the machines there are still opportunities for medical physicists to notice and prevent any radiation mistakes before they occur. First a test run is supposed to be conducted to ensure that the radiation amount and location are accurate. Second, during the radiation the monitor of the machine displays the amount and location of radiation but these monitors are not always watched as the technician usually focuses their attention on the patient.

Doctors are relying too heavily on the computer software when administering I.M.R.T. and failing to notice the signs the treatment is not appropriate for their patients. The software has no failsafe system to ensure that the doctors and technicians are administering the radiation properly and not causing serious and permanent harm to patients. Unfortunately for patients the risks and injuries of this new technology are currently outshining the benefits and healing capabilities.

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Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm

The Food and Drug Administration has launched an investigation to reports that patients in Philadelphia hospitals and other hospitals nationwide have been over exposed to radiation during routine tests and procedures.

A typical CT scan exposes patients to radiation levels about equal to 400 X-rays but reports have surfaced that in some cases patients have received radiation levels equivalent of 3,200 X-rays. None of the patients knew about the overexposure until they begun to lose their hair.

The increasing popularity and effectiveness of diagnostic tests that involve radiation has exposed more people to more radiation then in the past. In the last thirty years a typical person's exposure to medical radiation has increased seven-fold. Ionizing radiation, which is used in imaging exams, increases the patient's lifetime cancer risk and can also cause skin burns, hair loss and cataracts.

The FDA is increasing oversight into CT scans, nuclear medicine studies, and fluoroscopies. CT scans are the most common form of radiation imaging that provides medical professionals with 3-dimensional images of the bodies. In a nuclear medicine study a radioactive substance is passed through the patient's body and monitored by doctors and a fluoroscopy is a diagnostic tool that provides doctors with a continuous internal image through the help of a radiation-emitting device.

Currently there are no indicators on any radiation emitting device that informs doctors or technologists that the patient is receiving inappropriate amounts of radiation. The industry has failed to implement a failsafe system and unfortunately patients are paying the price.

A clinical trial is currently being conducted at MossRehab in Philadelphia that allows paralyzed people to walk again. The study puts 14 wheel bound chair patients in a revolutionary robotic exoskeleton that allows them to stand, walk and even climb stairs.

The exoskeleton, ReWalk is manufactured by Argo Medical Technologies and doctors are hoping that this study will lead to approval by the Food and Drug Administration by the end of 2010. The lightweight device has an upper body harness, full leg supports and a backpack. The supports in ReWalk have motorized hips and knees and motion sensors placed in the shoulder sense changes in gravity and tell the device when to take a step. This device can only be used by people who have full use of their arms as leg motion is guided with the help of crutches. When fully charged the device can last for three hours.

The participants in the study are ecstatic about the freedom the ReWalk gives them; some haven't stood in twenty years. Doctors see the other benefits of the device, exercise. It is extremely difficult for those paralyzed at birth or later in life from a spinal cord injury to get exercise and the lack of exercise makes their bones weak and brittle. Using ReWalk will reverse the effect in patients while giving them the added bonus of freedom from the wheelchair.

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Cutting-Edge Robotic Exoskeleton Allows Wheelchair-Bound to Stand and Walk

Evidence has just been disclosed in a lawsuit in California that a train conductor for Connex Railroad was using his phone to send text messages just before a fatal crash last September. An employee from Chatsworth Metrolink, which supplies conductors and engineers to Connex Railroad, informed lawyers that he knew the conductor had been text messaging while on duty and warned the company about this a few days before the crash. This same employee also complained to a co-worker 3 hours before the crash. Federal investigators say that Robert Sanchez, who was driving the train, and also died in the fatal collision, had sent and received dozens of text messages that day(all being violations of company policy), his last having been sent 22 seconds before the collision. The fatal crash resulted in 24 deaths and 135 injuries. I've recently handled a number of train crash cases and know firsthand how careless some engineers can be that ultimately can lead to the unnecessary loss of life.