Funeral for radiation overdose youngster

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) The funeral of teenage cancer patient Lisa Norris, who was mistakenly given massive overdoses of radiation for a brain tumour, will take place later today.

A week ago, a report into the 16-year-old's treatment concluded the overdoses had been administered mainly because of a mistake in paperwork.

The service for the teenager, who died at her home in Ayrshire, Scotland two weeks ago, will be held at South Parish Church in Girvan.

Lisa had been battling the tumour for a year.

Norris suffered serious radiation burns as a result of the overdoses. She died after the brain tumour returned, but her father has said he is convinced it was the overdoses that were responsible.

A post-mortem has yet to report.

In January, Norris was given 19 overdoses of radiation therapy and shortly before she died she had undergone treatment to remove fluid from her brain.

Speaking of the overdoses, the report said ''the principal cause of this incident was identified as a single erroneous entry'' on paperwork setting out her treatment plan at Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow.

Checks by senior staff also failed to spot the mistake.

The inquiry report called for an immediate inspection of all Scotland's five specialist cancer centres.

Among criticisms in the report were that training records were out of date, written procedures failed to reflect current practice and inexperienced staff were used in the planning of the youngster's treatment.

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