Re: Pregnancy Test Advised for Female Trauma Victims Prior to radiation exposure

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Hello Chris, 

>>The implication of the first paragraph in the news article is that the  

primary dose of concern, when considering the management of a pregnant  

patient, is that to the mother.<<

The article fails to give any meaningful statistics. They only state two 

parameters, that there were doses that exceeded 5 rads and that the mean 

dose was 4.3 rads. Not a lot to go on. 

I suspect that those 10 cases resulting in death of the fetus could have 

been do to either very high dose, or, the trauma. Again, no details are 

provided, which seems to be the general issue with any scientific article 

that is written by a lay person, without the necessary scientific background 

to produce a valuable piece of work. 

As far as your last comment, isn't it the physician's duty to protect the 

mother at all costs? From your questions, you seem to be stating that if 

there is a fetus involved, a known fetus, that perhaps the mother should not 

receive the necessary care, diagnostic tools, such as radiation, only 

because of the fetus. This enters morality and ethics issues (depending on 

which side you come down on) and not medical treatment. Since we're 

talking about trauma, and I have to assume serious trauma, then whatever 

is done needs to be done. The physician and EMTs can't be expected to do 

all kinds of tests only because there is a fetus present. 

Regards, 

Sandy 





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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	

Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.			E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           

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Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/scperle

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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