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CT Scan "Reset Error" Gives 206 Patients Radiation Overdose
jeffb (2.718) writes "As the LA Times reports, 206 patients receiving CT scans at Cedar Sinai hospital received up to eight times the X-ray exposure doctors intended. (The FDA alert gives details about the doses involved.) A misunderstanding over an 'embedded default setting' appears to have led to the error, which occurred when the hospital 'began using a new protocol for a specialized type of scan used to diagnose strokes. Doctors believed it would provide them more useful data to analyze disruptions in the flow of blood to brain tissue.' Human-computer interaction classes from the late 1980s onward have pounded home the lesson of the Therac-25, the usability issues of which led to multiple deaths. Will we ever learn enough to make these errors truly uncommittable?"
Requiring that doctors RTFM is the first step.
Anyone else read this as David Banner?
That's really not fair...you have no idea that people would die from that radiation. It's at least equally likely they would develop super powers, join up with others who have received similar doses of radiation, and form a crime fighting team of mutants.
All I'm saying here is we shouldn't just dismiss this as a bad thing until we've fully explored the legislative and societal implications a team of crime-fighting mutants with superpowers would have.
What's a few hundred rem among friends?
*insert pithy sig here*
The machine didn't build itself!
SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, MEATSACK!
Now there are 206 hulks running around.
Just don't make them angry.
The machine didn't build itself!
SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, MEATSACK!
Oh, yeah?! Well who built your first model, you bucket o' bolts! And don't give me that FSM nonsense. Everyone knows that the Fantastical Spawning Machine was truly the work of humans, inspired by the intelligently designed schematics given to us by the noodley appendage of the true FSM.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, MEATSACK!
Scanning with high intensity radiation reveals he is in fact about 60 percent water, 16 percent protein, 15 percent fat, and about 3 percent nitrogen... So, more of a stringy, greasy, slightly gassy water bag really.
Sorry about the high levels of radiation used to obtain the data, your armpits should stop smoking any minute now.
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
That pops up for the operator to respond to....
Are you sure you want to kill this patient?
Yes No Retry
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
Don't be such a dolt. The machine is the product of evolution. Millions of years ago a bolt of lightning hit some random alloys and a simple logic circuit was born. Fast-forward to now, and *poof* CT scanner! It just make sense.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
I always thought it was 10% luck, 20% skill, 50% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain, 100% reason to remember the name.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
Was that before or after your car hit the bottom of the ravine?
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I don't know. I never have really understood Statistical Mechanics and I have probably not already died in a car accident.
Squirrel!
You're saying it's better NOT to find the bug in the code responsible for turning off the X-ray?
Jesus, what must your code look like?
ResidntGeek