Los Angeles hospital admits to radiation errors
Patient Safety Monitor Alert, October 14, 2009
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Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, has found that it accidentally administered radiation dosages eight times the normal strength to more than 200 potential stroke patients, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The patients were undergoing CT brain perfusion scans on a specific scanner. In February 2008 the hospital changed the protocol for using the scanner to provide a different type of data that would have been useful for analysis. However, that meant overriding the default settings on the scanner, resulting in the overly-strong radiation dosages. Physicians were only alerted to the stronger-than-normal scan in August when a patient complained of patchy hair loss after the scan.
To read more from the Los Angeles Times, click here.
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