Carmelo tells us his own story. He had to leave the cath lab in 2021 due to a recurrence of cancer.
He was first diagnosed in 2016, at which point there were questions about whether his cancer was radiation-related – but with the recurrence in 2021 the oncologist advised him not to work as an interventional cardiologist.
Between 2019 and 2020, Carmelo had to work in a mobile lab, which had three times the amount of radiation compared to a standard cath lab. When he brought this up with the cath lab manager, he was advised to either continue in the cath lab or work in the clinic. He chose to selectively only do right heart caths, rather than invasive coronary procedures.
After Carmelo measured the exposure of the lab, he made staff and colleagues aware of the danger, and they have since removed the mobile lab.