Re: Radioactive patients

[denison.8@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu (Eric Denison)]

Michael--

Depending on the dose rate the non-nuc-med patients are receiving when they 
sit near the Tc-99m patients, there may indeed be a regulatory problem.  Even 
if there is no legal problem, it certainly goes against ALARA to expose other 
patients if there is a simple and reasonable way to avoid it.

I recall an instance here when I accidentally stopped one click short of 
turning my meter off after surveying some ductwork for the maintenance folks, 
then walked through the waiting room outside the nuc med outpatient area.  The 
meter suddenly started screaming as I walked past an elderly woman sitting 
alone in a corner of the area.  I was new in the neighborhood at the time, so 
it shocked me for a minute.  First thought was that someone had dropped a seed 
or spilled something on the carpet, but then I realized that the woman could 
have been recently dosed.  I introduced myself and apologized for prying, then 
asked if she was a nuc med patient.  She said that she had received an 
injection for some procedure or other and was told that she should wait a 
short while for the label to properly distribute before they continued.  She 
seemed well-informed, so I explained my reasons for asking and briefly 
demonstrated (with the sound off!) the meter response that drew my attention.  
She said that she asked the staff about being in the waiting room and was told 
that she wouldn't be there long enough to be a danger to anyone else, then 
offered to move somewhere else.  I assured her that she was fine where she 
was, and showed her that the meter response decreased rapidly with 
distance and even dropped off to background when the probe face was not 
pointed directly at her.  A quick sweep of the floor confirmed that she was 
the only source of emissions, and we parted company.  

In this case, at least, a well-informed and conscientious patient ended up 
posing no danger to anyone.  We can hope that all cases work out this well...


In article  fhf <maay100@bgumail.bgu.ac.il> writes:
>Date: Tue, 1 Jul 97 01:58:42 -0500
>Reply-To: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>From: fhf <maay100@bgumail.bgu.ac.il>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Radioactive patients 


>Does anyone in the radsafe or nucmed groups see a radiation 
>protection problem in the following situation?

>A small nuclear medicine service seeing about 600 patients per 
>month is situated in a large ambulatory non-hospital patient clinic. 
>People waiting for scans, mainly bone studies, have received Tc-99m doses 
>of the order of 20 mCi (740 MBq).

>The patients waiting for nuclear medicine studies are generally 
>sitting for 2-3 hours among other patients waiting to be seen in other
>clinics, such as dermatology, internal medicine, pediatrics and others.

>                                Michael Quastel \MD PhD
>                                Soroka Medical Center
>                                Beer Sheva, Israel
>                                Fax: 972-7-6400765
>                                Email: maay100@bgumail.bgu.ac.il