No sternum

["Glenn and Rita Marshall" <gmarshall@knology.net>]

I have a question for you medical HPs out there.  My mother-in-law has had three surgical procedures done on her heart in the last 2 months.  Her sternum has just about disintegrated, to the point where now they cannot even close her up.  The surgeon thinks her sternum became embrittled from the radiation treatments she had a few years ago when she had breast cancer.  I'm positive he's nuts, and have said so.  But I'm not in the medical HP field so I don't have any actual numbers in front of me to prove my point.  What is the typical dose to a breast cancer patient from brachytherapy?  What is the high end?  I have no idea how many treatments she had; in fact until today I thought all they did was chemo. 



If there are any MDs who might know the reason for the breakdown of the sternum, please let me know. 



Thanks,



Glenn