Veterans Administration requests retraction of 80 ‘medical events’

By Walter F. Roche Jr. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Veterans Affairs officials are asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to retract the VA’s reporting of 80 “medical events” stemming from six years of treating veterans with improper radiation doses.

If approved by the NRC, the unprecedented request would eliminate the negative “medical event” categorization for 80 of 97 previously reported cases in which prostate cancer patients were given improper doses of radiation at the VA’s Philadelphia facility. NRC officials say they do not recall ever getting a similar request.

Records released by the VA indicate that at least one of the 80 patients was from the Pittsburgh area.

According to the NRC Web site, a “medical event” indicates potential problems in a medical facility’s use of radioactive materials. It does not necessarily result in harm to the patient.

In a 17-page submission made public Saturday, Gary E. Williams, head of the VA’s radiation programs, said existing standards for determining a “medical event” are “both imprecise and too subjective for regulatory review” by the NRC or regulated entities.

He wrote that if the Philadelphia cases were reviewed under the standards recommended by a recently convened “blue ribbon panel” of experts, only 17 of the 97 incidents would be classified as “medical events.” The proposed standards would focus on the accuracy of the placement of radioactive seeds rather than on the accuracy of achieving the planned dosage.

The NRC has taken the request under advisement.

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