More Problems for Veterans Affairs Patients
There are six more cases of prostate cancer patients who were given incorrect doses of radiation at a Philadelphia-area Veterans Affairs hospital, officials said. The bogus cancer treatments are just the latest black eye for the embattled VA, which is already embroiled in a scandal involving the improper reuse of medical equipment in colonoscopies and other procedures, which possibly exposed thousands of patients to hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, and other deadly diseases.
For those keeping score at home, this brings to 98 the number of veterans who received sub-par cancer treatments at the Philadelphia VA facility. The incorrect radiation doses were administered during brachytherapy, a routine medical procedure during which a doctor implants radioactive metal seeds inside the patient to kill cancer cells. VA doctors implanted too low or too high of doses in patients or placed the seeds in the wrong area of the body.
Too little radiation or improper implantation of the radioactive seeds can render the cancer treatments ineffective, while doses that are too high also can be dangerous. After problems with the procedures surfaced in 2008, the VA pulled the plug on the cancer program, which had treated about 114 patients before it was halted after six years.
Other VA Problems Reported
In March, it was announced that thousands of VA patients in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee may have been exposed to hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases a result of the improper administration of colonoscopies and ear, nose, and throat procedures at various locations between May 2004 and March 12, 2009.
Some of the problems occurred at a VA clinic in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. VA staffers there reused plastic tubing and other medical equipment on multiple patients, which may have exposed more than 6,000 patients to the communicable diseases. The equipment was supposed to be changed after every patient, but it wasn’t.
The VA says it has since retrained nurses and other personnel in the proper administration of the examinations and that the problems should be a thing of the past.
At the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, officials recently told about 1,200 veterans that they may have been exposed to infection when undergoing ear, nose and throat procedures between January and November of 2008.
Thousands of VA patients across the country have been offered free blood tests to determine whether they had been contaminated due to the improper surgical procedures.
Related posts:
- CT Scan Radiation Injury Toll Rises to 250 Patients Another 50 patients have been added to the list of...
- More Patients Linked to Radiation Overdoses From Botched CT Scans The number of stroke patients who were exposed to potentially...
- FDA Investigating Problems with Defective Medical Device Power Cords The Food and Drug Administration is looking into more than...
- FDA Launches Investigation of LASIK Eye Surgery Problems The Food and Drug Administration is taking a closer look...
- Patients Exposed to HIV, Hepatitis at South Florida Hospital, Officials Say There is another case in the news today of thousands...
