Texas Radiation Overexposure Attorney
Radiation lawyer W. Craft Hughes is actively reviewing cases involving victims improperly exposed to radiation by medical providers. If you or a fmaily member have suffered a serious injury or a loved one died after receiveing excessive radiation, you may be eligible to file a claim. Please complete our firm's Excessive Radiation Client Questionnaire to contact personal injury and excessive radiation attorney W. Craft Hughes.
If you or a loved one developed new cancer tumors or suffered any severe injury due to excessive radiation as a patient, Craft Hughes Law, P.C. can assist you in holding the hospital or medical facility accountable. Please click here to contact a radiation lawyer W. Craft Hughes, or telephone personal injury and excessive radiation attorney W. Craft Hughes toll-free at (888) 350-3931. There is no charge or obligation for our review of your case.
News Articles About Excessive Radiation
The AP (2/10, Perrone) reports that the Food and Drug Administration launched a new initiative on Tuesday requiring all high-grade medical imaging machines "to include safety controls that prevent patients from receiving excessive radiation doses." The agency will particularly focus on "high-tech machines such as CT scanners," and will urge manufacturers to "install safeguards on their machines that automatically notify operators if they are using a higher-than-recommended dose." The agency also intends to "curb excessive radiation exposure from two other types of imaging: nuclear medicine and fluoroscopy." Dow Jones Newswire (2/10, Dooren) reports that the FDA action would directly impact device manufacturers such as General Electric Co., Siemens AG and Toshiba Corp.
Noting that the new safety controls come only months after a Los Angeles hospital determined that it had "accidentally exposed more than 260 patients to eight times the normal dose of radiation for CT brain scans over a period of 18 months," the Los Angeles Times (2/10, Zajac, Zarembo) reports that Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, admitted that the tests "can provide tremendous medical benefit," but said the agency was "trying to optimize that benefit while lowering the risk."
Texas personal injury lawyer W. Craft Hughes is an aggressive advocate representing victims and individuals in legal claims including wrongful termination, government contractor fraud, False Claims Act, qui tam, pharmaceutical drug litigation, eminent domain, excessive radiation, medical malpractice, defective hip implant, Medicare and Medicaid fraud, false advertising, healthcare fraud, defective auto part, auto accidents, swimming pool accidents, and personal injuries.
New York Times Article - Excessive Radiation
The New York Times (2/10, A17, Bogdanich, Ruiz) points out that the effort is part of "a growing movement to make life-saving medical radiation -- both diagnostic and therapeutic -- safer." Only last week, "the American Society for Radiation Oncology called for the nation's first central database for the reporting of errors involving linear accelerators," while a "Congressional committee was set to hear testimony Wednesday on the weak oversight of medical radiation." However, that hearing "was canceled because of bad weather."
The New York Times article reported on the excessive exposure of patients to radiation at medical facilities across America, including:
In New Jersey, 36 cancer patients at a veterans hospital in East Orange were over radiated -- and 20 more received substandard treatment -- by a medical team that lacked experience in using a machine that generated high-powered beams of radiation.
In Louisiana, a prostate cancer patient received twice the prescribed amount of radiation because he was treated with a new machine that the hospital made a miscalculation even with training instructors still on site.
In Texas, a patient suffered severe radiation injuries after a medical physicist who said he was overworked failed to detect a mistake.
In California, more than 300 patients in four hospitals -- and possibly many more -- were over radiated by powerful CT scans used to detect strokes. The overdoses were first discovered at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a major Los Angeles hospital, where 260 patients received up to eight times as much radiation as intended.
The over radiation of patients is often not disclosed to patients or reported to public health authorities. In many cases, the mistakes continue for months because the hospital has no system in place to catch the errors. In one study of clinical trials, nearly 20 percent of the hospitals that used powerful radiation treatments from machines known as linear accelerators had at least one radiation beam outside the acceptable range.
USA Today (2/10, Szabo) reports that David Brenner, director of Columbia University Medical Center's Center for Radiological Research, warned that none of the FDA's proposals "will prompt doctors to reduce the number of unnecessary scans performed because of financial incentives, fear of lawsuits or because earlier scans aren't readily available." Instead, Brenner "suggests patients ask doctors if they can safely delay a scan, or opt for a test that doesn't involve radiation, such as an MRI, or a test that uses less radiation, such as an X-ray."
New radiation technologies have brought benefits but also created new avenues for error in software and operation. A single error can be repeated in multiple radiation sessions for scores of patients. While serious radiation injuries are infrequent, when they occur the patient can suffer devastating injuries resulting in death.
These deadly errors often could have been avoided if the medical providers had followed basic safety protocols as well as ensured that their protocols provided sufficient patient safety. The law in most states provides several personal injury claims for persons who have been seriously injured through the negligence of a medical provider.
Damages can include compensation for:
• Physical pain and suffering, mental anguish and physical impairment;
• Medical expenses associated with efforts to remedy the injuries as a result of the original surgery; and
• Loss of earnings and/or earning capacity.
In the case of a patient's death, the family of the victim may file a wrongful death action and seek damages.
Contact Radiation Overdose Attorney W. Craft Hughes
Radiation lawyer W. Craft Hughes is actively reviewing cases involving victims improperly exposed to radiation by medical providers. If you or a fmaily member have suffered a serious injury or a loved one died after receiveing excessive radiation, you may be eligible to file a claim. Please complete our firm's Excessive Radiation Client Questionnaire to contact personal injury and excessive radiation attorney W. Craft Hughes.
If you or a loved one developed new cancer tumors or suffered any severe injury due to excessive radiation as a patient, Craft Hughes Law, P.C. can assist you in holding the hospital or medical facility accountable. Please click here to contact a radiation lawyer W. Craft Hughes, or telephone personal injury and excessive radiation attorney W. Craft Hughes toll-free at (888) 350-3931. There is no charge or obligation for our review of your case.
The content on www.crafthugheslaw.com should NOT be taken as a substitute for advice by a competent attorney or medical professional. The site is sponsored by attorney W. Craft Hughes and the law firm of Craft Hughes Law, P.C., located at 333 Clay Street, Suite 4720, Three Allen Center, Houston, TX 77002; Phone 1-888-350-3931. The law firm is licensed to practice in Texas but not elsewhere. On certain mass tort claims, cases may be filed in a state and/or transferred for multi-district litigation to a state other than the client's primary residence. Use of this website or submission of an online form does NOT constitute the forming of an attorney-client relationship. Accordingly, no attorney-client relationship is formed until (1) you are contacted by an attorney from Craft Hughes Law, P.C. and (2) you sign a written client agreement. Information contained on www.crafthugheslaw.com, including but not limited to written text, images, informational articles, on-site links and off-site links, has not been prepared, endorsed or reviewed by any form of licensed medical professional, including but not limited to physicians, doctors, medical experts and so on. Nothing on this website should be taken as medical advice, but instead should act as a useful resource in providing general information that may be useful to members of the general public. All visitors are encouraged to consult with a physician or other licensed medical professional for any form of medical advice.
