RE: $5.4M Radiation Case Settlement Ok'd

["Weiner, Ruth" <rfweine@sandia.gov>]

Here is some feedback to your question: Last year I had a bone scan and I
asked the technician what she was injecting me with.  She responded: "Oh,
it's just a little bit of radioactivity and it won't hurt you."  I pointed
out that I was quite knowledgeable and not scared and might use the
information as a problem in the class I teach at UNM, so she told me: 30 mCi
of Tc-99.  She went on to say that most patients are so fearful of anything
radioactive that she downplays it just as she initially did with me.  She
didn't tell me the CEDE -- she probably didn't know -- and I can certainly
figure it out.

I do think there should be a requirement to inform the patient fully, no
matter how "scared" they might be, and the physician should do this so that
the patient can do a proper comparative risk assessment.  I do also know
from painful personal experience that the information to do a proper
assessment has to be pried out of many physicians and one has to know
exactly the right question to ask.  I don't think all this requires
million-dollar settlements, but something should be done to make the medical
profession more accountable in this respect.

Clearly only my own opinion.

Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
Sandia National Laboratories 
MS 0718, POB 5800
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0718
505-844-4791; fax 505-844-0244
rfweine@sandia.gov
		

-----Original Message-----
From: Harold_Anagnostopoulos@illinova.com
[mailto:Harold_Anagnostopoulos@illinova.com]
Sent: Friday, May 07, 1999 7:27 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: $5.4M Radiation Case Settlement Ok'd




>>>The lawsuit charged that the approximately 90 cancer patients who
received radiation treatments from 1960 to 1972 in Cincinnati were
not fully informed of the risks, or told that the Defense Department
was getting the results to learn what might happen to troops
exposed to radiation>>>

Doesn't this condition exist today, and every day?

I'm my experience, I have not had discussions about the risks for diagnostic
procedures. As a teenager, I had a CAT scan. No discussions. My son had a
bone
scan 3 yrs ago. No discussion. The Nuclear Medicine Tech was shocked when I
asked about the CEDE for the administration, and had NO idea.

I have had several Radiation Workers here at a power reactor come in to work
and
fail the contamination monitors on the way out of the plant. It seems that
their
doctor have them "someting" to check on their heart....

Is the difference really between diagnostic and therapeutic administrations?
Do
these discussions of CEDE and risk really happen for therapeutic exposures?

I'm curious and would like some feedback.



Standard disclaimers.
Harry Anagnostopoulos, CHP
Harold_Anagnostopoulos@illinova.com


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