Because dead people are "sexy."

Uh oh ...

Patients to face delays in cancer scans using isotopes

Smaller hospitals in Canada could start cancelling diagnostic scans for cancer as early as Wednesday because of the shortage of medical isotopes, experts say.

Some Quebec hospitals are likely to cancel some scans on Wednesday, said Dr. Francois Lamoureux, head of Quebec's Association of Nuclear Medicine Specialists.

"What is going on at the moment at the federal level is incredible," said Lamoureux. "I'm saying it's not a political crisis. It's a medical crisis."

The supply of medical isotopes has dwindled since May 15, when a nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ont., was shut down after inspectors detected a heavy-water leak.

"There is a marked reduction in availability of medical isotopes this Thursday and Friday, where the shipments that we were hoping would be coming in from South Africa and the Netherlands will not be arriving," said Dr. Christopher O'Brien, head of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine.

"For some of our smaller hospitals, there will be absolutely no medical isotope availability Thursday and Friday of this week."

I think isotope shortages are "sexy." Don't you think they're sexy? I think they're sexy.

P.S. The comments on that CBC article are awesome but, curiously, what's missing is any trace of Canada's YaYa Wankerhood, leaping to defend Raitt's honour. It's amusing, is it not, that the same wingnuts who will bellow loudly on their blogs are not all that keen to do the same in a forum like CBC's comments section. One suspects they realize they'd get their nads and ovaries handed to them in short order.

Profiles in courage, the lot of them.