Medical Malpractice

Three out of every four (often high) doses of radiation used for heart scans are clearly inappropriate, according to a review of medical records at the Mayo Clinic.

CT scans of the chest or abdomen involve up to ten times the natural radiation from the sun and soil over the course of an entire year, or anywhere from 13 percent up to 40 percent of the minimum radiation received by survivors of the Japanese atomic bomb blasts in 1945, or the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.

A study by Columbia University researchers estimates that up to two percent of all Cancers in America in the next few decades could be the result of CT scan radiation exposure now being given to patients.

Other studies estimate than at least one-third of all such tests, from X-Rays to CT scans, are not needed, with an estimated 21 million people (1 million of them children) being needlessly exposed to this risk, according to the same Columbia University study published in 2007.

The most overused and abused diagnostic procedures involving excess and needless radiation exposure include CT scans of the chest for heart problems, or to see if there are any clogged arteries, chest X-rays for routine hospital admissions or prior to surgery, lower back X-rays of older patients with stable spine conditions, and car crash victims not exhibiting any signs of head trauma or abdominal injury.

The dosage of such exposures could also be reduced by two-thirds with no loss in the image quality, according to a Michigan study led by Dr. Gilbert Raff, a cardiologist and radiation safety expert.

Another study at Columbia University, conducted by Dr. Andrew Einstein, discovered a way to lower radiation dosage by 90 percent without affecting the image quality.

Needless multiple tests resulting in excess exposure also often result from one doctor or specialist not knowing what another has already ordered, also from routine requirements for health insurance or for students studying abroad, by doctors - especially emergency room physicians - who fear malpractice suits, and even just to appear to be doing something due to patient demand.

Doses of radiation exposure are often not tracked over any period of time, to avoid any possible cumulative effect, and neither are they adjusted to avoid over-exposure for gender, age and size (women and children are among those receiving excessive radiation exposure as a result of such carelessness).

Orthopedic injuries, that cannot be easily fixed by surgery, that require physical therapy as the treatment of choice, are among the highest sources of needless radiation exposure, according to Philadelphia primary care specialist, Dr. Richard Baron.

Doctors now rely too much on "routine" scans, rather than examinations and expert judgement, without understanding the need for or limitations of such diagnostic tools, according to Dr. Baron.

Doctors make enough life and death decisions every day, without throwing into the mix the increased risk of cancer developing as a direct result of their examinations and treatments.

If you are worried about radiation from airport and weather radar, airport scanners, high power lines, electrical wiring in your home, cell and cordless phones, computers and microwave ovens (among other environmental exposures), then you should definitely be concerned about the six-times growth in exposure over the past twenty years from medical sources of radiation alone.

Radiologists who think such excessive exposures are rare or nonexistent have simply failed to consider the possibility or to look for such cases, according to radiologist Dr. Steven Birnbaum.

Overdosing on "super X-ray" CT scans, due to overtesting with this imaging diagnostic method of choice, is among the worst offenders in raising cancer risk for Americans, who lead the world in such exposures.

Little wonder, then, that the United States also leads the world in the incidence of fatal cancers, as American consumers heedlessly consume more cancer-causing radiation today than ever before.

There isn't much difference between the risks posed from such modern medical procedures and the results of bleeding a patient to death - the way George Washington died - by earlier generations of medical mispractitioners.