Radiation Injuries

Radiation is a miraculous tool when properly and conservatively used but capable of killing or maiming and disabling if used incorrectly. The misuse of radiation is a frequent claim in medical malpractice cases.
The most common source of radiation is sunlight, the source of all life but, if overdosed, capable of causing sunburn and short and long term destruction of skin. The most malignant and dangerous type of skin cancer, melanoma, is considered to be the result of over exposure to the sun.

X-rays are one of the most common of physicians’ diagnostic tools. They work by sending radiation through body parts to a sensor that translates the rays into pictures of bones or soft tissues. While the amount of radiation in diagnostic x-rays is small, overexposure can result in destruction of tissue and cancer in the patient or in the physicians or technicians who use radiation. It has been suggested that excessive dental x-rays can cause mouth cancer. Diagnostic x-rays range from the familiar plane film used in chest x-rays to computerized tomography, CT or cat scans in which thousands of x-ray impulses are projected and captured in a computer which provides pictures of the areas of the body millimeters apart making it possible for physicians to find minuscule abnormalities.

Radiation is most dramatic when used purposely employed to destroy tissue. Technics are available to precisely aim a beam of radiation to an area of cancer and destroy that cancer. Radiation can also be used for the obliteration of non-cancerous abnormal tissue.

Our office successfully represented a young person who had had thyroid disease that caused his eyes to bulge and appear pop-eyed. This patient’s physician suggested radiation to reduce the tissue behind his eyes. The patient was told that the procedure would be painless and would be effective in improving the patient’s appearance. He consented and received approximately twenty applications of radiation aimed at the tissue behind his eyeballs. Several months after the completion of the radiation treatments, he noticed that his vision was deteriorating. His ophthalmologist diagnosed radiation damage which continued to worsen even after the radiation treatment was stopped. The patient was left with less than 10% of his pre-radiation vision. After copies of all records were obtained and all doctors and technicians were questioned. Radiologists and physicists were consulted by our office. All experts agreed that the patient was damaged by excess radiation and that the patient should have been made aware of the possibility of blindness. The experts retained by our office agreed that the nature of the injury was such that it would only have happened if there had been medical negligence. They could not, however, find evidence of negligence in the medical records of the treatment received.

Finally, a deposition was taken of the technician who operated the machine that projected the radiation and whose job was to record amounts of radiation given and the settings on the machine. At our insistence, the original records were produced for the technician’s deposition. As the technician was being questioned about her settings, it was noticed that the chart page containing over 20 entries supposedly made over months was unblemished except for the handwriting of the entries. Every entry was made with the same pen and with the same handwriting and angle of paper to handwritten characters. The technician admitted that it was her duty to record settings at each session and the entries were in her handwriting. When asked about pen and ink and handwriting which looked like they had all been made at the same time, she became embarrassed and unresponsive. The hospital attorney noted this serious defect in the technician’s behavior and testimony. Within weeks the case was settled for several million dollars.

The New York Times has reported that radiation injuries are often the result of faulty computer software, and quality-assurance procedures, or insufficient staffing. The article in the Times notes that because there are not strict legal requirements for reporting radiation overdoses, many overdose cases are not reported to state agencies. In New York State, hospitals are allowed to refuse to disclose findings of committees that monitor patient safety.