GE Denies Product Defect Liability on CT Scan Radiation Overdose

October 14, 2009

General Electric (GE) has denied any defects with their CT scan machines at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center that cause radiation overdoses. or eight times more than the necessary amount as previously claimed by some patients.

"There was a misunderstanding about an embedded default setting applied by the machine . . . As a result, the use of this protocol resulted in a higher than expected amount of radiation,” said an official from the hospital.

The error happened last February 2008 when the medical center used a new procedure to diagnose strokes since it will help them analyze disruptions in blood flow better to the brain tissue. They reset the machine to supersede the pre-programmed instructions of the scanner.

According to reports, a stroke patient began losing hair after a scan. There were 206 people who got overdoses. 40 percent of which had patchy hair loss and reddening of the skin. It is not easy to detect excess radiation from scan results, although it can cause a clearer image.

The downside of radiation exposure is that it increases the possibility of cancer. The Food and Drug Administration issued an alert last week wherein hospitals were warned in the US to check their CT procedures.

GE further said that procedures should be evaluated when installing the scanners.