Experts: CT Scans Linked To Radiation Overdoses

ATLANTA — CT scans can be a lifesaving tool, but they also can cause radiation overdoses. Experts say it's happening more and more at hospitals across the country and perhaps in Georgia. Miscalibrated machines or operator error is exposing patients to dangerous doses of radiation.

Becky Coudert went to a hospital in Huntsville, Ala., for what doctors called a routine CT scan. She said what happened was anything but routine.

"I thought, there is something wrong with me. Then the nausea and headaches started," said Coudert.

Radiation from the scan scorched part of her head and burned some of her hair off, she said. Her hair has grown back, but she still suffers from nausea, dizziness and blurry vision.

"As time has gone on it's gotten worse. I keep waiting for it to get better," Coudert said.

In all, officials are notifying about 60 patients at the same Huntsville hospital that they may have been exposed to hazardous levels of radiation.

WATCH: CT Scans Linked To Radiation Overdoses, Say Experts

It's not an isolated case. At Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CT scans gave patients more than eight times the proper dose of radiation, officials said. In Missouri, officials said they discovered a machine used for years was miscalibrated, exposing 76 patients to radiation.

Emory cardiologist Reza Fazel led a study that determined the use of CT scans is increasing at a staggering rate, and exposing a growing number patients to radiation that could lead to cancer. He said the growing number of reports on radiation overdoses reveal a dangerous lack of oversight.

"This has kind of brought to light the issue that there's really very little monitoring or regulation in terms of safety measures or quality control."

Some people in the medical community said the requirements for operating a CT scanner need to be tougher. Right now, Georgia requires two years of training to become hospital-certified.

Cile Lucas of Marietta fractured a vertebrae in a car crash. While recovering, she got six CT scans of her upper body over a three-month period. Two of them were done within a 30-minute window, she said.

"After we came home from the hospital, I did have a long spot in the very back of my neck that was probably 3 inches long," Lucas said.

Her hair grew back over the spot, but months later, a doctor diagnosed her with breast cancer.

Lucas had a double mastectomy. She may never know if the radiation from the CT scan caused her cancer, but she hopes patients and doctors will become more educated about the risk.

"The doctors need to be more cognizant of how many tests that they are ordering and if they are really really needed," Lucas said.

Channel 2 Action News found no reports of radiation overdoses at any local hospitals.

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