In today’s New York Times, Walt Bogdanich reports on the devastating consequences of medical mistakes related to radiation treatment. He tells the story of several patients who believed they were undergoing lifesaving treatment but instead were hit with lethal doses of radiation. He writes:

Without a doubt, radiation saves countless lives, and serious accidents are rare. But patients often know little about the harm that can result when safety rules are violated and ever more powerful and technologically complex machines go awry. To better understand those risks, The New York Times examined thousands of pages of public and private records and interviewed physicians, medical physicists, researchers and government regulators.

The Times found that while this new technology allows doctors to more accurately attack tumors and reduce certain mistakes, its complexity has created new avenues for error — through software flaws, faulty programming, poor safety procedures or inadequate staffing and training. When those errors occur, they can be crippling.

Read the full report, “The Radiation Boom: Radiation Offers New Cures and Ways to Do Harm.” Be sure to see this fascinating multimedia graphic that shows how radiation errors can occur. And then please join the discussion below.

Have you been affected by a medical error related to radiation treatment? Please share your story in the comment box below.

Thanks to the NY Times for a great piece.