St. Jude Puts Young Patients At Risk, Fired Neurologist Claims

A pediatric neurologist says practices at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital put hundreds of children at risk and may have hastened the deaths from cancer of at least 20 children, reports this article from USA TODAY.

June Caruso alleges that physicians at the prestigious hospital in Memphis, Tenn., didn't read test results from some patients' electroencephalograms (EEGs), that some magnetic resonance imaging tests were misread and that some children received inappropriate radiation treatments. Caruso was fired from her position last year; she says her dismissal was prompted by her allegations over the hospital's care.

The hospital denies all the charges.

However, the federal Office for Human Research Protection (OHRP) did find that sometimes five years went by before EEG findings were written up, and that there was no written evidence that doctors used these test results to confirm diagnoses. The OHRP concludes this "may have represented unanticipated problems involving risks to subjects or others." The OHRP did not find any evidence to substantiate Caruso's other allegations, but it will continue its investigation into her charges.

St. Jude acknowledges that sometimes there may be delays before a report is written up, but claims that's nothing more than a clerical error, according to the article. Hospital deputy chief Bill Evans says doctors always receive a verbal report of EEG results.