I don't know how the amounts of fines are determined.
Nobody said anyone died of the extra radiation.
It simply says that "77 patients were affected. Twelve have since died"
The 12 (or any of them), could have been receiving palliative radiation for end
stage cancer.
In other words, they could have died from the cancer, not the radiation.

This has more detail
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/04/02/Hillsborough/77_Moffitt_patients_g.shtml
Published April 2, 2005

TAMPA - Seventy-seven patients were exposed to excessive radiation levels for
nearly a year because a machine was improperly installed, officials at H. Lee
Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute said Friday.

Federal inspectors detected the error on March 7. That was 10 months after the
machine was installed to treat patients with brain tumors and malformations.

Inspectors determined the machine gave patients radiation doses 50 percent more
powerful than prescribe
"We at Moffitt take full responsibility for the programming error," Dr. William
Dalton, CEO/center director, said in a statement. "I'm sorry and all of us are
sorry it happened."

Moffitt officials acknowledged the error more than three weeks after physicists
with the federal Radiological Physics Center discovered it.

The delay was necessary to allow Moffitt officials to meet privately with the
patients, Dalton said in a telephone interview Friday. Of the 77 patients, 12
have died and two could not be reached because they were out of the country.

Because of the serious nature of their conditions, the overexposure was not
being blamed for any deaths or side effects observed in other patients, Dalton
said.

"Some people were having side effects, but overall, they were within the normal
range of side effects of radiation treatments," Dalton said. "We aren't seeing
unanticipated levels of side effects."

The machine is typically used on patients with inoperable brain tumors and a
poor prognosis for survival, according to the state Bureau of Radiation Control.

An analysis of the patients showed that even with the increased dosages, only a
third received radiation levels deemed unsafe by by Moffitt officials, Dalton
said.

Still, he said he and his medical staff were concerned. Radiation was delivered
to patients with brain tumors, and side effects to overexposure could include
headaches and speech and memory loss. It could take three months to a year for
these symptoms to emerge.

"Bottom line, we're talking about the difference between what we prescribed and
what we delivered," Dalton said. "There may be increased side effects."

Moffitt officials had high hopes for the technology when they installed the new
linear accelerator, which is used for noninvasive surgical treatment of tumors.
The Novalis unit, by the German manufacturer BrainLAB, shoots powerful beams of
radiation at tumors. The pinpoint beams are narrow enough to minimize harm to
healthy tissue.

Patients undergo 20 minutes of treatment rather than the usual several days
because the machine is so powerful and precise, Dalton said.

But, according to a report by the Florida Bureau of Radiation Control, a
physicist installing the machine plugged in the wrong formula, causing the
machine to release 50 percent more radiation than prescribed. State regulators
say he miscalculated more than once.

"We were shocked," said Dr. Harvey Greenberg, Moffitt's division director of
radiation oncology. "He made the same mistake three times. There was no good
explanation."

Even if the machine delivered higher amounts of radiation, it may not have done
that much damage because it's so precise, said Dr. Jim Cox, the head of
radiation oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

"Since the radiation was targeted toward a very small area, it may not have an
adverse affect," Cox said.

"The beams come in at so many directions, so only small doses are given in any
one direction, and that decreases the odds of any significant damage."

This _might_ be the agency
http://www.doh.state.fl.us/environment/radiation/index.html if you wish to poke
around there or contact them.
J

It's the personal lawsuits which will lead to the big $ settlements