Radiation Overdose Lawsuit Settled for $15 Million

 When Zacarias Chichioco Jr., a maintenance company supervisor living on the Hawaiian island of Maui, was diagnosed with lung cancer early in 2008, he turned to the Pacific Cancer Institute on the island, where his oncologist recommended a series of 35 radiation treatments. To deliver the radiation, the clinic used Varian Medical Systems' Eclipse system, with a Varian-developed linear accelerator controlling the amount of radiation released.

But Chichioco soon showed drastic side effects, among them difficulty in swallowing, hearing loss, hallucinations, and paralysis on one side of his face. The radiation treatments also left him needing several skin grafts. His doctor then discovered Chichioco had been seriously over-radiated during his first 21 treatments; in fact the patient had received about two and a half times the proper radiation dosage. Weakened by the excess radiation, Chichioco eventually died of lung cancer in a Maui hospice in mid-2011, at age 45, leaving behind a wife and two children.

After Chichioco's death, his family then sued Varian, the cancer clinic and Chichioco's doctor. The lawsuit claimed that an error in Varian's software produced the overdoses. https://askcompetentlawyer.com/ The family contended Varian had discovered the error in 2007 and upgraded the software in the Eclipse system used at the Pacific Cancer Institute, but had not provided the clinic with instructions on how to avoid the error.

Varian devices have had problems with radiation overdoses in the past: nearly 150 patients in France were overdosed by Varian devices in 2007, and a Missouri hospital using Varian systems reported unintended overdoses of over 75 patients over a five-year period. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration eventually ordered Varian to recall its linear accelerator software. The American Society for Radiation Oncology years ago called for the creation of a national database to report errors linked to linear accelerators, but no such database yet exists.

Last month, shortly before the trial was set to begin, the lawsuit was settled for $15 million. The clinic founder and Chichioco's personal doctor each agreed to pay $1 million, the maximum coverage under their malpractice insurance policies. Palo Alto-based Varian Medical Systems reportedly will pay the remaining $13.25 million under the settlement.

If a medical device may have caused harm to you or a member of your family, or if a medical practitioner's negligence caused injury of illness, consider getting expert advice for a New York medical malpractice attorney.