Controversy
According to articles in the Los Angeles Times, Cedars-Sinai is under investigation for significant radiation overdoses of 206 patients during CT brain perfusion scans during an 18-month period. Since the initial investigation, it was found that GE sold several products to various medical centers with faulty radiation monitoring devices.
State regulators had also found that Cedars-Sinai had placed the Quaid twins and others in immediate jeopardy by its improper handling of medication.
In 2011, Cedars-Sinai again created controversy by denying a liver transplant to medical marijuana patient Norman Smith. They removed Mr. Smith from a transplant waiting list for "non-compliance of our substance abuse contract", despite his own oncologist at Cedars-Sinai having recommended that he use the marijuana for his pain and chemotherapy. Dr. Steven D. Colquhoun, director of the Liver Transplant Program, said that the hospital "must consider issues of substance abuse seriously", but the transplant center did not seriously consider whether Mr. Smith was "using" marijuana versus "abusing" it. In 2012, Cedars-Sinai denied a liver transplant to a second patient, Toni Trujillo, after her Cedars-Sinai doctors knew and approved of her legal use of medical marijuana. In both cases, the patients acceded to the hospital's demand and stopped using medical marijuana, despite its therapeutic benefits for them, but were both sent 6 years back to the bottom of the transplant list. Mr. Smith's liver cancer returned after Cedars refused to replace his liver, and he died in July 2012.
Read more about this topic: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
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