In a rather off-the-track technology related report, a hospital named Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has come into a bit of trouble due to problems with its CT scanner; a programming error has caused the machine to give patients eight times the maximum amount of radiation that's nominal.
According to the LA Times, the hospital recently began utilizing a new protocol in order to create a specialized type of scan used to diagnose strokes, which unfortunately went a bit wrong. In order to use said protocol, the machine had to be reset, thus overriding the pre-programmed instructions that were included with the scanner when it was installed.
An official for the hospital said that, "There was a misunderstanding about an embedded default setting applied by the machine... as a result, the use of this protocol resulted in a higher than expected amount of radiation." Higher than expected sadly means that is was increased by eight times, which, when combined with a brain scan, lead to radiation sickness.
Apparently other hospitals are now investigating their own equipment to ensure everything is working as it should, but it just goes to show that whilst technology may be great in some aspects, it can also be very dangerous.
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