Re: Release of I-131 Patients

["Elizabeth M. Brackett" <brackett@bright.net>]

At 08:36 AM 10/29/1999 -0500, Mack L. Richard, M.S., C.H.P. wrote:
       > snip <
>It seems that I have heard of a couple of facilities that have attempted to
>measure external dose equivalents to the family members of I-131 patients by
>issuing film or TLD badges to those family members.  Anyone know about this
>and if so, where we can view the results?  That would be interesting.
>
Many facilities exchange the patient's TLD for a period of time following
an administration.  This information would also be interesting. 

This doesn't directly address the question but it is somewhat related.
When I was at ORNL we did internal dose monitoring on an individual who had
been administered 100 mCi of I-131.  We put her into a Ge-based whole body
counter about 4 days after the administration and got 99% deadtime.  Her
urine samples had to be diluted by a factor of 50 to avoid the same
problem.  We could still detect activity 52 days after the administration.
She had recently had a baby and the therapy had been delayed until she
finished breastfeeding.  However, she told me that her doctor had told her
it would have been okay to breastfeed after having this therapy (!!).

In another message, Mark Settles said:
>Having a few years of Operational Health Physics Supervision behind me, I
>would be interested in some dialogue discussing the impact that has been
>witnessed from "Patients that have been released."

At another DOE facility, a woman received an entrance lung count.  It
turned up positive and the woman panicked.  She had never been to a nuclear
facility before and couldn't imagine where it came from.  Further
monitoring located the material on her behind and identified it as Tc-99m.
It turned out that she had come from visiting a friend at a local hospital
and had used the public restroom there.  Apparently a patient had used it
just before her.

Liz Brackett


******************************
  Elizabeth M. Brackett, CHP 
     Sr. Health Physicist     
     MJW Corporation, Inc.       
       (330) 644-3757        
  mailto:brackett@bright.net 
******************************
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