Re: settlement - ludicrous!

[Lew Helgeson <lewhelgeson@helge.com>]

Perhaps the woman (already had advanced stage of cancer) who died in 1982,
10 to 20 years after the radiation exposure, (emphasis on 10 to 20 years)
should be thankful that she had all those EXTRA years due to radiation
hormesis !!!

Let me give you some of my history. I was an x-ray technician during WW-II.
Following the invasion into France in June 1944, our patient load (192nd
General Hospital, Cirencester, England) went from about 40 to 200 in a few
days. Since I was the smart-aleck who when told to do something by an
officer frequently said "Yes, but why?," I was put on "portables." In other
words, I, as a Private, held the x-ray film against the patients leg, for
example, and the Sargent would position the Picker X-ray machine and turn it
on. After one month of this I had my routine blood exam and my white cells
(if I remember correctly. not red) dropped from greater than 8000 to 4000. I
wwas put on "garbage detail" for a month, then back to regular duty, only
this time I work a lead apron (I was called "the butcher boy) but still held
the x-ray film.

When I finished the U. of Washington in 1948 I started work for GE and
Hanford and soon learned how to estimate my exposure over the years from
x-rays. It was between 300 and 1000 R.

Now, about my health in general. First, I have had a malignant melanoma. The
physician, on hearing about my x-ray exposures, suggested that a much more
likely cause was genetic (my Mother was born is Wales and several of my
Welsh relatives have had malignant melanomas). Secondly, I have had prostate
cancer (I'm 75 years old and the latest PSA was 0.94 following radiation
treatment).

Aside from these two things, my general health has been excellent. I have a
strong suspicion that much of my excellent health is due to the hormesis
effect of my x-ray work.

Thus, I suspect that this woman was fortunate to have someone help her have
an extended life span. 

At 05:51 PM 5/6/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>What is wrong with our judicial system? This case, and the 
>aftermath is a mockery. Granted, there is an issue of consent, but 
>where is the damage, and if one considers non-information as 
>damage, what about proportionality? From the article regarding the 
>settlement:
>
>Article: 
>All but one of the plaintiffs has died. The defendants never 
>conceded that the experiments contributed to the deaths of the 
>patients, who already had advanced cases of cancer when they 
>underwent experimentation.  
>
>Observation:
>These individuals all had advanced cases of cancer. Yet only one 
>has died, a woman at the ripe old age of 82.
>
>Article: 
>The agreement approved Tuesday gives each of the families about 
>$50,000, plus the right to have the patient from their family listed on 
>a plaque in a courtyard at the hospital.  
>
>Observation:
>A plaque? What for? For receiving $$, clogging up the courts, 
>emotionally swaying the media which then agitates the general 
>public? Ludicrous!
>
>Article:
>Anna Foster, a Cincinnati woman whose grandmother Parthenia 
>Marshall, 82, died in 1982 after receiving the radiation  
>bombardments, said Tuesday she is pleased with the settlement.
>
>Observation:
>She already had advanced stage of cancer. She lived between 10 
>to 20 years after the exposure. Again, the causal effect that 
>requires a cash settlement.
>
>We can add this farce to the hundreds of millions spent on the 
>likes of Monica and OJ!
>
>Sandy Perle
>E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
>Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
>
>"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
>the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
>              - G. K. Chesterton -
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