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Patients Put at Risk By X-ray Errors
17 March 2008
A report from the UK’s Healthcare Commission has revealed that hospitals put more than 300 people at risk last year after exposing them to unnecessary doses of radiation.
In an analysis in to radiological tests carried out at NHS and independent hospitals, the Commission examines 329 incidents, a third of which involved x-rays being carried out on the wrong patient, with other people being given an unnecessary dose of radiation or even having the wrong body part x-rayed. Whilst some of the mistakes carried little risk to patients, others found themselves wrongly injected with radioactive substances, or receiving the wrong dose of radiotherapy treatment to the wrong body part.
The mistakes have come to light following the use of a new method for reporting errors in x-rays and scans but the results come as no surprise to Russell Jones and Walker’s specialist clinical negligence solicitors, James Bell and Paul Sankey, who regularly handle claims arising from x-rays errors and know that these errors can lead to serious disability, or even death.
Fatal Errors
James and Paul cite examples such as that of a patient whose ankle fracture was missed when a fracture visible on an x-ray and can was wrongly interpreted and is now left with difficulty walking. Timely diagnosis would have led to a full recovery. Another suffered a stroke when heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy) was missed on an x-ray. Perhaps the most shocking example is that of a patient who died of Lymphoma, a form of cancer, when an error led to the wrong part of his body being scanned. When a CT scan of the correct part was finally done, his cancer was still missed. Other patients have suffrered missed diagnoses of various lung cancer and adenocarcinoma.
Common Mistakes
Many of the cases dealt with by Russell Jones and Walker are as a result of a failure by hospitals to take x-rays when patients arrive in Accident and Emergency, resulting in missed fractures and other undiagnosed illness and injury.
James Bell commented: “We have had several clients that have suffered a fracture to the scapula (a small bone in the hand) which remained undiagnosed because no x-ray was carried out. Timely x-rays would have enabled the fracture to be treated without the need for later surgery.
“We have also had cases where hospitals have missed a slipped femoral epiphysis (an injury to part of the leg at the hip) in teenage boys. In the case of one patient, now in a wheelchair, doctors failed to notice a serious problem on an x-ray taken after a hip replacement. Had it been noticed at the time, it could have been remedied before she lost her ability to walk. We welcome the new reporting system as errors in radiological testing can carry serious implications for patient safety.”