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[Year] May 1993 [Description] Staffordshire hospital: A programming error caused cancer patients to receive the wrong doses of radiation. For a period of 10 years nearly 1,000 cancer patients at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary received between 5% and 35% less radiation than they required. Margaret Grieveson, the hospital physicist, wrongly assumed that a 'correction factor' which adjusts the dose according to the distance of the radiation source from the skin, had not been built into the Eclipse 6/130 computer. It had arrived without a manual. A report into the disaster, published in 1993, said that out of 1,075 patients who had received wrong doses, more than 401 had since died and a further 91 had suffered a recurrence of their cancers, including 26 who had surgery to remove their bladders. The report also said it was impossible to say whether those who died would have survived if it had not been for the mistake. [References] Vnunet.com May 13 1997 Official report: Committee of Inquiry into the conduct of isocentric radiotherapy at the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, West Midlands Health Authority; 1994 [Name] 
Wrong doses of radiation
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