Fatal Dose – Radiation Deaths linked to AECL Computer Errors (1994)

Katie Yarborough was the first of the Therac-25 machines were in enormous demand in hospitals throughout North America, and AECL Medical’s equipment was widely considered the best in a growing field. After the accident, AECL notified Therac-25 operators, the federal government’s Canadian Radiation Protection Bureau, and the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which monitors medical equipment in the U.S., that there had been a problem with the Hamilton machine. Three months later, in December, 1985, a Therac-25 at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital in Washington State, which had been modified according to AECL’s July specifications, delivered a similar dose, in a way similar to the Hamilton accident, to the hip of another cervical-cancer patient.

Source: www.ccnr.org