12/27/2006

Patient dies after X-Ray blunder

ONE patient died and 13 others were seriously affected by an overdose of X-ray radiation at a hospital in Epinal, north-east France.

The Jean-Monnet hospital has admitted that the blunder was caused by inadequate training procedures with the equipment. It said when the machines were installed, initial training in their use was carried out by the manufacturer.

However, staff then explained to newcomers how to operate the programmes, who later explained to subsequent trainees, and so on. To add to the confusion, the procedures were all in English.
Eventually, an incorrect default setting was made that resulted in a number of patients being given overdoses of between 20% and 40%.

The patient who died was suffering from prostate cancer and some of the other 13 affected have had colostomies as a result of damage to their intestines.