Monday, June 22, 2009
Dr. Gary Kao
Almost 80% of prostate cancer treatments at the VA hospital in Philadelphia were performed badly over a six-year period, found The New York Times, which uncovered a “rogue” cancer unit that routinely failed to properly treat patients. Of 116 prostate cancer treatments, 92 were done poorly, sometimes involving botched radiation-based surgical procedures (brachytherapy) that left veterans bed-ridden and in severe pain.
For example, instead of inserting radioactive seeds in the prostate, a surgeon—Dr. Gary Kao—mistakenly placed them in a healthy bladder, and in the case of another patient, the therapy was directed at another healthy organ. Kao is responsible for the vast majority of the substandard implants. Each time, Kao got away with his sloppy work, thanks to the lack of any “safety culture” at the VA hospital, which allowed doctors to perform radiation treatments with broken equipment. The Department of Veterans Affairs failed to do anything about the routine mistakes occurring at the Philadelphia hospital until the unit was shut down in 2008. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is supposed to oversee any hospital procedure involving radiation, also failed to do its job and take action to stop the dangerous mishaps.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
At V.A. Hospital, a Rogue Cancer Unit (by Walt Bogdanich, New York Times)
Comments