ENS Event | |
|---|---|
04:00 Jan 31, 2012 | |
| Title | Patient Buried with Plutonium-238 Pacemaker |
| Event Description | A former patient at St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital expired on 1/31/12 and the body was released to the family for burial. The patient had a Medtronic pacemaker with a radionuclide of Plutonium-238. The RSO at Sinai-Grace Hospital notified the NRC of this event.
There is no planned action to recover the pacemaker from the buried patient. THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL Category 3 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for some hours. It could possibly - although it is unlikely - be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks. These sources are typically used in practices such as fixed industrial gauges involving high activity sources (for example: level gauges, dredger gauges, conveyor gauges and spinning pipe gauges) and well logging. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf |
| Where | |
|---|---|
| Sinai-Grace Hospital Detroit, Michigan (NRC Region 3) | |
| License number: | SNM-1991 |
| Organization: | Sinai-Grace Hospital |
| Reporting | |
| 10 CFR 20.2201(a)(1)(i) | |
| Time - Person (Reporting Time:+1712.25 h71.344 days <br />10.192 weeks <br />2.345 months <br />) | |
| Opened: | Tim Applegate 11:15 Apr 11, 2012 |
| NRC Officer: | John Knoke |
| Last Updated: | Apr 12, 2012 |
| 47821 - NRC Website | |
Sinai-Grace Hospital with 10 CFR 20.2201(a)(1)(i) | |
WEEKMONTHYEARENS 478212012-01-31T04:00:00031 January 2012 04:00:00
[Table view]10 CFR 20.2201(a)(1)(i) Patient Buried with Plutonium-238 Pacemaker 2012-01-31T04:00:00 | |