Cancer / Radiation Overdose

G.C. vs County

A young mother came to us with complaints of a progressive inability to walk. She had been diagnosed with colon cancer and had received radiation by a hospital. She was told that the cancer had been cured. She had been able to walk before the radiation and now could not. Her husband was employed as a butcher in a small grocery store.

We investigated the radiation treatment received by the patient. We found that the defendants prescribed the correct amount of radiation but they had miscalculated the distance of the radiation port from her skin. It was twice as close to her body as it should have been. The effect was that she had gotten massively overdosed. They had burned her spinal cord. That's why she couldn't walk.

We took the deposition of the head of radiation treatment at the defendant hospital. The doctor had not seen the radiation films until we handed them to her in the deposition. When she saw the films, she ran out of the deposition room and refused to speak to us anymore.

They settled the case immediately afterwards.

Unfortunately the patient died. Her husband used the money received to buy the grocery store and shopping center where he had worked. He was able to take care of his children and put them through school.