Girl 'permanently hot' after radiation blast
Hospital admits error of massive overdose of up to 17 times

15-year-old Lisa Norris of Scotland blasted with massive overdose of radiation (courtesy: Scottish TV)

"I'm very sore and I've got burns on the back of my neck and down my ears," Lisa Norris, 15, told Scottish Television. "I'm starting to blister and at night I can't sleep because I can't lie on my back, it's just really sore. Mum helps me get on my clothes. ... We don't know what's in the future because I could be brain-damaged, I could be paralyzed. I could be paralyzed in the future, like 10 to 15 years. I could not be here. Time will tell if anything is going to happen."

The teen from Girvan, Ayrshire, in Scotland had gone to the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow, where she was treated for a brain tumor.

The Beatson is the largest cancer center in Scotland, and the second-largest in the UK. Hospital officials admit Norris was blasted with a mistaken amount of radiation, an overdose potential up to 17 times the proper amount, and blame it on "human error."

Professor Alan Rodger, medical director at Beatson, said:

"This investigation established that no equipment failure was involved but that the overdose was the result of human error. Our investigation has confirmed that no other patient treatments have been compromised. Treatment services for all other patients continue as normal. The staff involved with isolated incident are extremely distraught."

The girl has reportedly developed large sores on her scalp and ears, and is said to be "permanently hot," needing to take cold showers to cool herself.

"I am really angry with the people who did this, they shouldn't get away with it," Norris said. "By rights they should be put out of their jobs and never allowed back into the [National Health Service], because it could happen to someone else maybe worse off than me."

Her father, Kenneth, said: "We were told last week that everything was fine, the tumor had gone, and we were overjoyed by it. And then on Monday her consultants came down and broke the news that they had given her this almighty dose of radiation. It's just knocked us for six. We haven't been able to sleep at night since."

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