Costa Rican Cancer
Victims Sue GE
Daniel Tepfer,
ctpost.com
BRIDGEPORT -The families
of more than a hundred
Costa Rican cancer
victims claim in a
lawsuit filed in
Connecticut that a
machine manufactured by
General Electric Co. to
treat their disease
actually made their
conditions worse,
causing some of the
victims to die in agony.
The lawsuit, filed in
Superior Court against
the Fairfield-based
international
conglomerate, claims the
company tried to cover
up a defect in the
machine - a Alcyon II
Rotational Cobalt
Therapy Unit - blaming
the problem on the
equipment operator.
Benton Musslewhite, the
Houston, Texas, lawyer
representing the
families of 109 cancer
victims, said many of
them died in agony after
being over-radiated by
the device.
"Most of them have died,
the others are dying.
It's pretty much a death
sentence to get this
kind of radiation," he
said.
General Electric
officials declined
comment on the lawsuit.
According to the
lawsuit, the plaintiffs,
all suffering from some
form of cancer, during
the early- to mid-1990s
all were given radiation
treatments using the
device at the Hospital
San Juan de Dios in San
Jos, Costa Rica.
However, because of an
alleged defect, the
machine radiated parts
of the plaintiffs'
bodies that was not
intended, the suit
states.
A few weeks before
plaintiffs underwent
cancer treatment at the
hospital, a General
Electric technician made
adjustments to the
machine, the lawyer
said. He contends those
actions threw off the
calibration.
"At the start of the
therapy, blocks are
placed over the parts of
the body that must be
protected from
radiation, but because
of an improper
calibration, radiation
was applied to other
areas of the body where
there was no cancer,"
Musslewhite said.
According to the
lawsuit, a doctor at the
hospital was later
blamed for the radiation
overdoses and convicted
of manslaughter. |
