Posted On:
February 3, 2010
Excess Radiation Causes Cancer Patient's Death
The Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog has posted an article about a medical negligence lawsuit regarding a cancer patient's death. Patricia Quirk was receiving radiation treatments for endometrial cancer in Chicago hospital and died of a perforated bowel.
Ms. Quirk's untimely death was caused by receiving 50% more radiation during the last two-thirds of her treatments, being basically "over-radiated." Appropriate amounts of radiation treatments can have unpleasant side effects such as fatigue, hair loss and nausea.
Yet when given in overwhelmingly large amounts, radiation can have disastrous effects on one's body, as the decedent's case unfortunately illustrates. The large doses of radiation eventually caused decedent's bowel to perforate, or tear, which resulted in a blood infection and her eventual death.
The decedent's family mourned the senseless loss of Patricia Quirk and argued that if common sense had been applied then the Chicago hospital's medical negligence could have been avoided. The decedent's radiation prescription was for 180 centigrays of radiation, yet she was given 270 centigrays. Plaintiff's attorneys argued that if the medical staff had simply reviewed the chart that the error would have been caught and the Chicago woman's wrongful death would have been avoided.
Bookmark: 
