When you're inflicted with a serious illness, you depend on the doctors and nurses who administer your treatment to do so with the utmost precision and professionalism. Unfortunately, cases of malpractice surface all the time due to the negligence and ineptitude of medical professionals and their staff members. One example would be a recent study from a West Virginia hospital that exposed several brain scan patients to overradiation.
Many of the patients have suffered from serious, detrimental effects including hair loss, nerve damage, weakness, fatigue and fever. This all occurred despite the fact that the FDA had already published its final report on hundreds of radiation overdose cases involving brain scans at other hospitals. Congress, state officials and professional organizations had also discusses the issue, yet none of this seemed to have resonated with the Cabell Huntington Hospital.
Cabell's federal records exposed that the hospital was aware of some of the overdoses for more than three months, but did not publicly address them until the recent media attention they received. Despite the recent attention given to radiation exposures Karen Riley, a spokeswoman for the FDA, suggested that there are most likely even more cases in existence than the ones which are currently being reported. She is quoted saying, "We suspect that overexposures continue to occur and that incidents are underreported."
The FDA has published an additional report on November ninth of last year, revealing that most of the overdoses were a matter of user error. However, the report also indicated that the manufacturers should take responsibility for not training and educating their employees who were working with the equipment and the machines should have a better system of warning when the radiation reaches a maximum level.
Hospitals are supposed to make you feel better instead of worse. If you have been in a similar situation, you must contact a local medical malpractice attorney right away to get the compensation you deserve.
