A TEENAGER has been told that she could be dead within five years after being given massive overdoses of radiation 17 times during treatment for a brain tumour.
Doctors have told Lisa Norris, 15, that her future is bleak after cancer treatment that was meant to save her life went tragically wrong.
At best she could be brain damaged or paralysed and confined to a wheelchair for life. At worst she could die.
Two top-level inquiries are under way into the blunder at the Beatson Oncology Centre, Glasgow, Britain’s second largest specialist cancer centre, which treats 8,000 new patients a year.
A rare pinealblastoma tumour was diagnosed in the centre of Lisa’s brain five months ago. She was initially treated with chemotherapy, but that failed to stop the tumour growing.
Advertisement
On January 5 she started a course of radiotherapy at the Beatson, in the Western Infirmary, and last week, after 17 doses of radiation, she and her family celebrated when they were told that the tumour had gone.
Soon afterwards, however, her parents were contacted by the hospital. Two consultants visited them at their home in Girvan, Ayrshire, where they broke the news that Lisa had been given a huge overdose, which could eventually kill her.
The hospital said that initial investigations suggested that the mistake was due to human error, involving three physicists and two hospital administrators, rather than mechanical or equipment failure. In a statement the hospital confirmed that “no other patient treatments were compromised”.
Lisa has now developed blisters on the back of the neck, head and ears and her skin has turned red. She has difficulty sleeping because of burns on her back and heat inside her body. She says she has to take cold showers to cool down.
On being told about the mistake, she said, she asked the consultants what it meant. “I asked them if I was going to die, but they ignored me. When I asked a second time if I would be here in five years, they said they could not answer. I want to know if the worst is going to happen, so I can prepare.”
Advertisement
Sitting on a settee with her tearful mother, she added: “I don’t know what is going to happen to me. It could happen in 6 months to a year, it could happen in 10 to 15 years or it could happen when I’m 60.”
She has been told by doctors that she might have a scar on her brain that could lead to strokes or heart attacks. “I could be brain damaged. I could be paralysed.”
NHS Greater Glasgow has not yet disclosed to Lisa, her parents Kenneth, 50, and Elizabeth, 49, and her brother Andrew, 12, how large an overdose she was subjected to.
Because errors such as this are rare, doctors are unable at this stage to predict the extent of the damage, and have said that it could be up to three months before they are able to give a more precise diagnosis.
Lisa’s mother said: “I want every single member of staff who has contributed to this to be given the push. They have messed up my girl’s future and made her fear for every day of her life.”
Advertisement
The hospital has launched an internal inquiry and the Scottish Executive’s health department has also started a full investigation in conjunction with the Radiation Protection Division of the UK Health Protection Agency.
Professor Alan Rodger, medical director at the Beatson, said his colleagues deeply regretted the error. “We are conscious of the distress that is being caused to Lisa and her family and we are very sorry that this mistake has happened. The staff involved with this isolated incident are extremely distraught”.
HEALING POWER