The VA mess
GARY KAO is the Penn doctor on contract to the Philadelphia Veterans Administration hospital who was allegedly responsible for most of 92 botched prostate-cancer treatments (out of 116) over six years. He appeared before a congressional hearing here this week arranged by Sen. Arlen Specter to say he isn't going to be a "scapegoat" for the disturbing screw-ups.
He shouldn't be, even though a veteran seeking brachytherapy (implanting radioactive seeds in the prostate to kill cancer cells) had an incredible 80 percent chance of either receiving a dose lower than recommended or suffering injuries to other organs from faulty seed placement. To us layfolks, it looks like the poor patients might have had better luck being treated by the custodian.
Kao's string of degrees and Ivy League position should give pause to those who use such measures to judge quality. But bad doctor or good, his errors should not have gone undiscovered as long as they did.
Now that they have been, the agencies that are supposed to exert quality control - the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the VA itself - must use the experience to institute better safeguards against a repetition.
On the double. *
