Sick miners denied black lung benefits due to Johns Hopkins' x-ray findings
Doctor fails to find black lung disease in more than 1,500 cases
A physician at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions who is paid – by coal companies – ten times the amount to interpret x-rays that other doctors charge for the service has not found a single case of severe black lung disease in more than 1,500 x-rays – findings used to deny miners black lung benefits.
A joint yearlong investigation by ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity discovered that Dr. Paul Wheeler, head of the Hopkins unit that reads x-rays in black lung cases, has been wrong in at least 100 cases in which autopsies or biopsies later found black lung after Wheeler had read the X-rays as negative.