The Radiation Boom

Every day, there is always something that is happening in the world that is worth talking about. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs, unveiled the iPAD Tablet, it's purpose is for video, music and e-books and it is starting at $499. But there is one story in the New York Times that I read that just shocked me. The New York Times have published a series of the "Radiation Boom." In this article, "As Technology Surges, Radiation Safeguards Lag", some parts of the country, cancer patients go into their radiation treatments and end up being over-radiated, causing further damage to their bodies. The more shocking thing is that the machines that the doctors use are so advanced that they have not recognized the mistakes that the machines make. For example, "In Texas, a man named George Garst now wears two external bags- one for the urine and the other for fecal matter- because of severe radiation injuries he suffered after a medical physicist who said he was overworked failed to detect a mistake. The overdose was never reported to the authorities because the rules did not require it." Later in the article, "The first half of his radiation treatment — external beam therapy — was overseen by the state radiological division operating under one set of rules. The second half of his treatment — radioactive seeds — was subject to a second set of rules established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, except that the commission passed its responsibility on to the state, which must follow some, but not all, of the commission’s rules. In any case, the second rules differ from the first. As it turned out, Mr. Garst was overdosed and seriously injured, destroying his ability to urinate and move his bowels normally. Before two external bags were attached to collect his waste, Mr. Garst’s urine leaked into his rectum because a fistula had developed. He had so many infections, his doctors had to keep trying new antibiotics to replace those that no longer worked." The scary thing is, that was not even the worst of the cases that were mentioned in the article. There was a man that died from the radiation, but I will not go too far into it.
There was a reason why I never trusted doctors, and this article proves to be one of those reasons. I know that doctors and nurses go to school for a very long time to get their degree and I also know that they work tirelessly to save lives. However, this is unacceptable. I don't care if there are rules or regulations of how this works. These people have cancer, the biggest fear in anyone's life. These patients are trusting these doctors with their life and hard earned money and the doctors make decisions that is unethical to the maximum. It is bad enough that Congress did not make their deadline in passing the controversial Health Care bill, but it is another thing for the doctors to make these mistakes and not know what hit them. In fact, this series of the Radiation Boom is very timely because of the second-guessing of the Heath Care bill. I am curious of how the authorities will handle this. When they do, there are going to be some serious lawsuits and some serious money-loss.