[ RadSafe ] Hospital workers subjected to excessive radiation, lawsuits c...

Tue Jan 21 23:56:39 CST 2014

Radsafe:

     What a mess.  Tort City???  I expect  this CAT Scan facility could be 
modeled using MCNP (Monte Carlo Neutral Particle  Program).  The repeated 
structure capability might be used in this  exercise.  If necessary, one MCNP 
run could be done for each XRay source  and eventually the results could be 
summed.  It might be a bit time  consuming.

    Somebody did do initial surveys of this  facility???  Somebody should 
have isolated these problems initially, and  the facility's shielding should 
have been modified as the facility was  commissioned.  Ouch!!!

   Joe Preisig

In a message dated 1/21/2014 11:58:03 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
slgawarecki at gmail.com writes:

What  makes this story even more jaw-dropping is that Methodist Medical
Center is  located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, one of the original Manhattan
Project  sites, home of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and birthplace of
health  physics.  Of course the facility is in violation of the  strict
standards specified by the state of Tennessee which enforces  federal
requirements in this area.

This is what can happen when  there is no oversight of a contractor's work.
Someone with a radiation  safety background should have verified the
installation of  shielding.

Regards,
*Susan Gawarecki*

ph:  865-494-0102
cell:   865-604-3724
SLGawarecki at gmail.com

On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 5:01  PM, Franz Schönhofer <
franz.schoenhofer at chello.at>  wrote:

> Dear all,
> I am somehow privileged, that I happen to  know Susan personally. Yes it 
is
> her first name, Gawarecki cannot be a  first name!
>
> This article itself really bothers me a lot. I  have been working with the
> Austrian Standard on shielding of rooms,  where radiation is used for
> medical purposes. There we defined all the  conditions necessary to 
prevent
> any radiation harm to both patients  and people outside the area of
> radiation application. It was more or  less what has been followed since
> years by the hospitals. Whether  these conditions are met is controlled
> yearly. No such installation  will be permitted to be installed or 
operating
> without a control that  all requirements are met.
>
> Is this really USA-specific? I  remember this "Rumsfeld", who called many
> European countries  (explicitely Austria) as "old", because we did not 
send
> fighting  troops to Afghanistan (which is btw prohibited by our
> constitution).  If this article is true - I am not convinced - then there 
is
> a lack of  oversight and licensing. Otherwise it would not be difficult to
> fend  off these claims.
>
> Best regards,
>
>  Franz
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- From: ROY  HERREN
> Sent: Monday, January 20, 2014 8:48 PM
> To: The  International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
>  Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Hospital workers subjected to excessive
>  radiation,lawsuits claim
>
> Susan (at least I think that is your  first name),
>
>    I really appreciate receiving this  article.  In my experience working
> at a hospital it is all too  common for the sales people to make 
statements
> that will lead the  purchaser to under estimate the expenses involved with
> the  installation of a major pieces of equipment such as a CT.
>   Additionally, often time the folks in Radiology pushing the  acquisition
> and the hospital's engineering project personnel fail to  include the
> Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) or Medical Physicist in the  earliest 
stages
> of acquisition and planning, and then when the project  is in the middle 
of
> construction the engineers will complain that it's  too expensive to 
issue a
> change order for the project.  The RSO  or the Medical Physicist can't 
very
> well give professional advise on  projects if they aren't included 
anywhere
> in the acquisition, planning  and construction process.  In other words, 
if
> the radiation  safety professionals are left in the dark about acquisition
>  and
> construction this is an example of what  happens.
>
>
>    Based on the article, it appears  that this CT suite was constructed
> without a shielding plan, and that  a post-construction shielding survey
> wasn't performed.  I find it  hard to believe that this is in accordance
> with Tennessee state  law.  I'd have to dig through the American 
Association
> of  Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) publications, but I am fairly certain  
this
> isn't in accordance with AAPM standards, please see
>  http://www.aapm.org/meetings/07ss/documents/Stevensshielding.pdf
>
>
>  Roy Herren
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: S L Gawarecki <slgawarecki at gmail.com>
> To: RadSafe  <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Sent: Monday, January 20, 2014  10:23 AM
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Hospital workers subjected to excessive  radiation,
> lawsuits claim
>
>
>
> Hospital  workers subjected to excessive radiation, lawsuits claim
>
> OAK  RIDGE — Hospital technologists were exposed to excessive radiation at
>  Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, five lawsuits filed this week
>  allege.
>
> A wall between the CT scan room and the control room  in the hospital’s 
new
> Emergency Department area lacked a lead-lined  barrier to stop the
> radiation, according to the Anderson County  Circuit Court complaints.
>
> Computer tomography, or CT scans,  involve computer-processed X-rays that
> are used to diagnose  ailments.
>
> CT scans are “exponentially more powerful” than  conventional X-rays, 
said
> Clinton attorney John Agee, who filed the  lawsuits.
>
> Technologists in the control room behind the wall  that lacked lead lining
> were repeatedly exposed to scatter radiation,  Agee said.
>
> Excessive radiation exposure can lead to  cancer.
>
> Several of those technologists now have symptoms “that  would be 
compatible
> with radiation exposure,” the attorney  said.
>
> They will now have to take regular health screens for  cancer, he said. 
Some
> symptoms of excessive radiation exposure take  years to develop, Agee 
said.
>
> He said family members waiting in  a nearby room for relatives undergoing 
CT
> scans may also have been  exposed to the scatter radiation.
>
> “There’s a difference  between 40 exposures in a shift,” Agee said of the
> technologists’  situations, “as opposed to one.”
>
> Agee said it’s “most likely  that another 10 lawsuits are going to be
> filed,” with most of them on  behalf of current and former X-ray and
> radiologic  technologists.
>
> Two of the first five plaintiffs are women who  were pregnant at the time 
of
> their alleged exposures. At least one  child born after the exposures “is
> suffering from a severe illness,”  said Agee’s wife, Clinton attorney Lea
> Ellen  RidenourAgee.
>
> “The whole thing is just heartbreaking,” she  said.
>
> John Agee said that after it was discovered last month  that lead lining 
was
> missing from the wall, “not a whole lot of  information has been 
voluntarily
> given to these people, and they’re  obviously concerned about their 
health.”
>
> “I hate it for these  people,” he said. “To me it’s hard to understand 
why
> it  happened.”
>
> Named as defendants in the initial lawsuits, filed  Monday, are Covenant
> Health of Knoxville, which operates Methodist  Medical Center, Rentenbach
> Constructors Inc. of Knoxville, the  contractor that built the hospital’s
> new emergency department that  opened in February 2006, and TEG Architects
> LLC, the Jeffersonville,  Ind., firm that designed the project.
>
> Hospital spokeswoman  Crystal D. Jordan said Methodist Medical Center
> strongly refutes the  accusations.
>
> “We maintain an active and ongoing radiation  quality and compliance 
program
> with specific procedures to monitor  safety.
>
> “Base on the results of this program, it has been  verified that we have 
met
> all safety standards for radiation  exposure,” Jordan stated in an email.
>
> John Agee said concerns  began emerging when X-rays stored in a room next 
to
> the CT scanning  Room “became cloudy from scatter radiation.”
>
> Lea Ellen Agee  said technologists “attempted to take an X-ray through the
> wall, and  were successful.”
>
> An employee of General Electric “came in and  took some measurements in 
some
> adjoining rooms,” John Agee said, “and  conveyed to Methodist there was a
> problem.”
>
> Lea Ellen  Agee said the suspect wall was torn down in December, and the
> lack of  lead lining was confirmed then.
>
> John Agee said a former  radiological technologist at Methodist Medical
> Center, Clinton  resident Mike Phillips, told him about the situation.
>
> Phillips  is one of the first five plaintiffs, along with two current
>  radiological technologists, Keith Gillis of Knoxville and Mary Ridenour  
of
> Andersonville, who was pregnant at the time she was subjected to  the
> scatter radiation.
>
> Also filing suit were current  X-ray technologists Connie Raby of Clinton
> and Micah Noelle Lewellen  of Knoxville, who also allegedly received
> excessive radiation  throughout her pregnancy.
>
> Phillips and Raby in their lawsuits  allege they have had “thyroid 
problems,
> headaches, trouble sleeping  and other problems. “
>
> Gillis has had seizures and memory loss,  while Lewellen has “significant
> medical problems, according to their  complaints.
>
> The lawsuits state the defendants failed to have  qualified personnel 
check
> on the installation of lead barriers, and  that federal and state 
standards
> about radiation exposure were  violated.
>
> The complaints seek compensatory and punitive  damages, but no specific
> amounts are listed.
>  http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2014/jan/17/hospital-workers-
>  subjected-to-excessive-lawsuits/
>
> Regards,
> *Susan  Gawarecki*
>
>
> ph: 865-494-0102
> cell:   865-604-3724
> SLGawarecki at gmail.com
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