Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
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Myeloma Therapy- Radiation-Induced Myelopathy- Malpractice?
“Fear of radiation-induced myelopathy – which can cause minor injuries ranging from temporary numbness, to serious complications like hemorrhaging in the spinal cord, to debilitating permanent injuries like chronic progressive myelopathy…”
My radiation therapy I thought, was meant to be a small part of my overall therapy plan. I considered my autologous stem cell transplant to be the main cancer killer. I have never heard of the phrase radiation-induced myelopathy before I found and read the article linked below.
I’m no lawyer but I’m pretty sure that I suffer from radiation-induced myelopathy. I won’t sue University Hospitals for malpractice. The statute of limitations has long since passed for me to do anything about my RIM.
male all joints pain in blue
I am writing this post in the event that another myeloma patient undergoes radiation and his/her spine is damaged. If that person contacts me, I will tell them about the evidence-based but non-toxic therapies shown to heal radiation damage.
I would also explain what I’ve learned about possible malpractice and MM. Time is of the essence, you know.
Have you been diagnosed with multiple myeloma? Have you undergone local radiation therapy anywhere near your spine? Scroll down the page, post a question or a comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- Myeloma Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Breast Cancer-Prevent Radiation-Induced Dermatitis- Ugly, Painful Side Effect
- Has a Multiple Myeloma Patient Ever Died In Clinical Trial?
- Radiation and the Brain for pediatric cancer- late stage side effects
Whenever Radiation Therapy Causes Spinal Cord Injuries, Patients Should Investigate the Possibility of Malpractice
“A recent edition of The Ethicist column in The New York Times began with a husband writing about his wife, who had “lost the use of her legs when radiation to shrink a growth destroyed part of her spinal cord.” The husband also wrote that he “[had] confidence in our physicians and had no doubt that a malpractice suit would be a mistake,” and he mentioned the injury only as an introduction to another issue involving the lifetime care facility they had hired.
I assume the woman suffered from “radiation-induced myelopathy,” a rare but known complication of spinal radiosurgery in which the radiation damages the myelin sheaths around the nerves connected to the spinal cord. Fear of radiation-induced myelopathy – which can cause minor injuries ranging from temporary numbness, to serious complications like hemorrhaging in the spinal cord, to debilitating permanent injuries like chronic progressive myelopathy or acute paralysis of the legs, hips and any part of the body below the vertebrae affected – has historically limited how aggressive doctors can be in treating spinal tumors, growths and cancers.
It is quite possible that the complications experienced by the writer’s wife were unavoidable and that a malpractice suit would indeed be a mistake, but it’s also possible that malpractice was involved. If we were investigating the case, we would start with three questions.
First, was she given radiation therapy for a spinal tumor? Although radiation-induced myelopathy can occur after spinal radiation therapy even if the doctors do everything correctly, if the woman’s spine was injured by radiation intended to treat something other than a spinal tumor, then the oncologist, radiologist, or hospital lab technician were likely negligent. If, for example, the radiation therapy was intended to treat a tumor in her pancreas or another organ, but too much radiation was used or the radiation was misdirected, then her spinal cord could have been injured as a result of their negligence.
Second, was she warned that paralysis could be a complication of the treatment? Patients have the right to make an informed decision about the treatment they will undergo, and physicians have a duty to warn patients of the foreseeable risks, side effects and publications of the procedures. The risk of paralysis from spinal cord radiation is well-known in the medical community. If she was not told that paralysis was a risk of her procedure, she may have a claim arising from her lack of informed consent.
Third, was she an appropriate candidate for radiation therapy near her spinal cord, and did the doctors use an appropriately limited dose? Many oncologists use minimal amounts of radiation treatment, typically at or below an 8-Gy equivalent dose, unless the patient has an urgent complication like malignant spinal cord compression. If her condition did not warrant that sort of risky treatment, or if the doctors or hospitals used too high a dose, then she could have a claim for malpractice in the performance of the radiation therapy, even if she knew paralysis was a potential risk of the procedure.”