Rads Machines breakdown?

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Dilly
Dilly Member Posts: 655
edited June 2014 in Radiation Therapy - Before, During, and After

Has anyone else experienced a facility where the rads machine breaks down with some regularity? I'm on tx16 and the machine has broken down on 5 occasions, and twice during thie last 3 days.  Always something different, but down she goes.  Most of the a.m. patients either get shunted to tomorrow, or "worked in" in the afternoon. (today will be my third down-to-town-twice-in-one-day trip)

  My biggest concern is if this machine breaks down so regularly (always something different it seems), then how safe is it really?  Are breakdowns like this a common occurence, and nothing to worry about?

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  • pj12
    pj12 Member Posts: 25,402
    edited July 2010

    Hi Lost_Creek,

    I felt the same way when going through rads a year ago! My facility was in a hospital only 5 miles from home so not so  inconvenient as it was confidence shattering. My first week something went wrong every day. I was undone and when I saw the rad onc on Friday I told him I felt no trust that I was getting good, safe care.

    He did explain that the machine was super sensitive to power surges/fluctuations which caused them to have to reboot and start over. Also humidity (Florida!) changes made it necessary to reprogram. We were experiencing daily thunderstorms  and tiny power interruptions were the main problem. Sometimes I would be on the table ready for zzapping and they would have to start all over. :-(

    Technicians were there for several days, then things seemed to improve. ???

    Anyway, IF I had it to do over.... I would refuse to be treated immediately AFTER a failure. There was a terrrifying article about patients getting the wrong dose of radiation due to computer glitches. I did not read it until I had finished rads. I came through alright but always felt nervous.

    Don't be afraid to tell your team it makes you question what is going on. At least they might be more careful.

    Good luck!

    pam 

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  • Dilly
    Dilly Member Posts: 655
    edited July 2010

    HI PJ and thanks for the note - I suppose some of those same glitches could affect our machine; but it sure doesn't leave me with much confidence to hang onto.  Positive attitude & all...  At least by the time I get re-scheduled in the afternoons, they've gone through several txs & hopefully all's running smoothly.  I take the first or second appt in the a.m., and suppose it's one of the job hazards..

     Thanks again; will update and hope to hear other stories.

     Kathryn

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  • redsox
    redsox Member Posts: 523
    edited July 2010

    Having the machine breakdown so often would make me worry.  I think you should ask to see the rad onc and ask for an explanation of the problems and what they do to check that the machine is working right after a malfunction. 

    I had 34 treatments with no cancellations.  Twice the machine had scheduled routine monthly service that required shifting treatment time.   One day that they were running late I think they said that they were backed up because they had problems with the machine earlier in the day.  Other than that there were no signs of machine malfunctions. 

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  • Luah
    Luah Member Posts: 1,541
    edited July 2010

    Machines do break down, but I agree, that many times all at once is worrisome. Still, I"m certain there are failproof procedures and that's probably one of the reasons they do shut down.

    I had one machine break down after 4 treatments (during 31 treatments in all).  It never came back on stream!  Was decommissioned - yikes.  I found out it was due to be decommissioned anyway the following month... I was shunted to another machine where the techs were super-nice so all was good.

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  • Celtic_Spirit
    Celtic_Spirit Member Posts: 748
    edited July 2010

    My radiation facility had machine breakdowns twice during my 30 treatments...once during the regular rads, once during boosts. Five is a lot! How frustrating.

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