Finding a silver lining: the importance of documenting medical tragedies.

The radiation overexposure tragedy at a Columbus, Ohio, hospital impacted hundreds of patient lives and made a lasting impression on the regulation and oversight of the use of radiation medicine on a national level. Archival documentation of the incident and the current-day importance of the data collected during and after the event is discussed and highlights many of the reasons why the history of past medical disasters matters to us today.