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Radiation Therapy Mistakes Cost Lives

Posted by kdawson on from the feel-the-burn dept.

jmtpi recommends a long NY Times investigative report about how powerful medical linear accelerators have contributed to at least two deaths in the New York area. Although the mistakes were largely due to human error, buggy software also played a role. "...the records described 621 mistakes from 2001 to 2008... most were minor... The Times found that on 133 occasions, devices used to shape or modulate radiation beams... were left out, wrongly positioned, or otherwise misused. On 284 occasions, radiation missed all or part of its intended target or treated the wrong body part entirely. ... Another patient with stomach cancer was treated for prostate cancer. Fifty patients received radiation intended for someone else, including one brain cancer patient who received radiation intended for breast cancer."

6 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Windows as usual. by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 0, Troll
    TFA:

    When the computer kept crashing, Ms. Kalach, the medical physicist, did not realize that her instructions for the collimator had not been saved, state records show. She proceeded as though the problem had been fixed...

    ...Shortly after 11 a.m., as Ms. Kalach was trying to save her work, the computer began seizing up, displaying an error message. The hospital would later say that similar system crashes "are not uncommon with the Varian software, and these issues have been communicated to Varian on numerous occasions."

    Surprise, surprise. A little link-jumping through the manufacturer's products and job openings reveal .NET on Win32.

    Or could somebody prove that the machines themselves run Linux or some kind of other embedded OS?

  2. Re:Not a new problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Have you talked to a nursing student lately?

    Majority of college girls I meet are in nursing major, yet their mental capability is that of a baby chimpanzee.

    Most of them pick that major because it is "easy money".

    I'm not surprised shit like this happens.

  3. Re:Not a new problem by Darkness404 · · Score: -1, Troll

    And of course, mix this in with more government involvement in health care and you have a recipe for disaster.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  4. Re:Not a new problem by Darkness404 · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...And chances are your lawmakers actually read the fucking bill and not just trying to push it through without any regard for what people think.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  5. Re:Not a new problem by Darkness404 · · Score: -1, Troll

    even in the USA under Medicare, Medicaid, military and veteran health care,

    Lul wut? Have you ever -used- or know people who have used those services? They are terrible. Its much worse than any insurance provider and you are basically taken to bottom-barrel care centers where sometimes you wonder if you know more than the doctor... Not to mention the mess of paperwork, etc.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  6. Re:Melodramatic? by Dahan · · Score: 0, Troll

    Wow, you're quite the douche. People do not experience a reduction in their quality of life with one kidney. All the things you mention do impact quality of life.

    And yes, I'd certainly donate a kidney to a loved one if they needed it.