Most of the seeds, 40 in all, landed in the patient’s healthy bladder, not the prostate.
It was a serious mistake, and under federal rules, regulators investigated. But Dr. Kao, with their consent, made his mistake all but disappear.
He simply rewrote his surgical plan to match the number of seeds in the prostate, investigators said.
The revision may have made Dr. Kao look better, but it did nothing for the patient, who had to undergo a second implant. It failed, too, resulting in an unintended dose to the rectum. Regulators knew nothing of this second mistake because no one reported it.
Two years later, in 2005, Dr. Kao rewrote another surgical plan after putting half the seeds in the wrong organ. Once again, regulators did not object.
Had the government responded more aggressively, it might have uncovered a rogue cancer unit at the hospital, one that operated with virtually no outside scrutiny and botched 92 of 116 cancer treatments over a span of more than six years — and then kept quiet about it, according to interviews with investigators, government officials and public records.
The team continued implants for a year even though the equipment that measured whether patients received the proper radiation dose was broken. The radiation safety committee at the Veterans Affairs hospital knew of this problem but took no action, records show.
One patient was the Rev. Ricardo Flippin, a 21-year veteran of the Air Force. “I couldn’t walk and I couldn’t stand,” he said, citing rectal pain so severe that he had to remain in bed for six months, losing his church job and his income.
Pastor Flippin first learned of what his doctors called a radiation injury not from the V.A., but from an Ohio hospital where he underwent rectal surgery in 2006 to treat the damage. “There are times when I don’t have control over my bowels,” he said one recent Sunday, after excusing himself during a service at a church in West Virginia where he now preaches.
The 92 implant errors resulted from a systemwide failure in which none of the safeguards that were supposed to protect veterans from poor medical care worked, an examination by The New York Times has found.
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- News, Current News USA, Health Care, Medical, 2 more + add
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- ClipsFC
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- ClipsFC
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Kind of makes you wonder if the military is attempting to cull its own to shrink its active duty force, thereby necessitating additional private mercenary firms.
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lets just blame it on obama, the left had no problem blaming it on bush.
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- montesooma
- 5 months ago
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After years of hoping that some things @ the veteran hosp. might change. I now get my care in a 3rd. world nation and i heal in 8 days.In 2006 I was in the VAMC in Washington for a knee replacement which almost killed me. I was there for 10 months,had 19 operations,4 staff infections and lost a leg. I never healed in the hosp. It took a real professional to give me my first shower in 10 months at my home. Yes "I saying they never washed me" I wonder why I didn't heal in the hospital. Maybe someone might give me the reason? Now I tried to by taking a camera from Fox NEWS into VAMC but still they haven't corrected the problems affecting veterans. And by the way I have HEP-C "how about that". I would hope not for me but for many others that have to use the VA. My brothers and sisters who are in harms way might get better care.(I hope so) Thanks
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So that's what socialized medicine looks like, GREAT! Troops deserve better.
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this is why i don't want socialized medicine... and why NO ONE is proposing it. most americans don't understand the subtle difference between socialized medicine (like the VA, where the government owns the hospitals, hires the doctors, and generally run the business) and single-payer health care (like medicare, where the government acts solely as the insurance company and does not provide care).
single-payer is the only way to go.
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- tbowman131
- 5 months ago
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