Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 23, 1991                   TAG: 9102230066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MADRID, SPAIN                                LENGTH: Medium

3 DEAD, OUTLOOK GLUM FOR PATIENTS HIT BY RADIATION IN SPANISH HOSPITAL

Three patients already have died, the most recent one on Thursday.

A judge is investigating the state-run University Hospital in Zaragoza, where radiation equipment malfunctioned over a 10-day period in December.

"We fear the worst for some of the patients," said Fernando Gomez, a spokesman for Insalud, the state health system. "We are seeking information worldwide to find someone who has experience dealing with this kind of situation."

Similar accidents involving the equipment, called a linear electron accelerator, occurred in Marietta, Ga., in 1985; in Tyler, Texas, in 1986; and at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in England in 1988, but no deaths were reported.

The equipment, developed in the 1940s, destroys cancer cells by exposing them to electron impulses injected at half the speed of light. The previous three accidents were blamed on a computer software error, a malfunctioning accelerator and a mathematical error made by a doctor.

It was unclear whether human error was responsible for the Zaragoza accident. The hospital's equipment, made by General Electric, had several backup safety systems which made it less likely to malfunction, a hospital official said.

Hospital officials added that the accelerator now is working normally.

Phyllis Piano, a spokeswoman for General Electric Medical Systems in Milwaukee, said the company was working with authorities in Spain to determine the accident's cause.

Insalud officials refused to speculate Friday on the cause or say whether health authorities believed human error was to blame.