Long Island man wearing 9kg-metal necklace dies after being sucked into MRI machine
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Kind of like Tilikum, responsible for 3 of 4 known human deaths by an orca.
I'm rooting for the orca in the med that are eating rudders. Dunno why, I just think they're neat.
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After reading another article: nope, necklace was just a huge locket on a chain. And the wife said "Keith, Keith, come help me up" which sound to me like:
- wife was making a big fuss for no good reason (might have had a reason according to a 3rd article)
- husband obeyed as any good husband would
- technician didn't inform the husband that his wife would be carted out of the MRI room and failed to react fast enough
If I was married and a bit dumber, I could probably also be lured to my death with my name being called out twice in that fashion. Really depends how good the signage was and how well the husband was informed.
They have extensive screening and education and safeguard procedures, for the patients. I'm guessing hubby skipped (probably wasn't even offered) all those and just dashed in the door when called. Tech still should have put hubby through "the talk" if he was anywhere close to the door to the room.
MRI is one of the most sci-fi come to life technologies most people are likely to encounter in their lives. Superconducting magnets are about as non-intuitive as it gets, once they get you past the point of your ability to resist the force, there's no recovery - you're going faster and faster until the metal hits the housing. There have been multiple accidents with steel oxygen cylinders - for the obvious reason: they're so common in the environment where MRIs are used, and it's no small feat to get the cylinder removed.
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But the husband was called to get her off the table? Did she fall while the technician was away? Shouldn't there have been a 2nd person to supervise her, or is that too expensive? And she did help in trying to get him unstuck, so she could get up on her own then? How are there so many important details to this?
That's it, as fun as it is to speculate, I think I'll reserve my judgement until after this has gone to court.
The major failure in this case was lack of education / restraint of the husband. Before he got within 25 feet of the MRI room door, he should have had "the talk" about metal objects and MRIs not mixing, deadly consequences, etc. Other things could have helped, but I suspect the local safety procedures are patient focused and hubby didn't get properly educated before entering the danger zone.
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Again, why aren't there metal detectors at the entrances to MRI machines everywhere? For the cost of those machines, the cost of a metal detector is peanuts
A - standard metal detectors probably won't work well right at the MRI room door. Some facilities may have a longer hallway for access and putting one there, far from the actual MRI suite, would make a lot of sense (I think I visited one location that had that layout), but not all facilities are laid out in a way that that could work.
B - the nature of how a metal detector works would probably have negative impacts on MRI image quality if it is too close to the imager - even outside the shield room door.
I did a sort of tour of a couple dozen MRI facilities for a couple of years, the stronger ones all have radio-frequency shield rooms complete with metal / gasketed doors that are supposed to be closed during imaging. Actual practice regarding keeping those doors closed was pretty loose in the places / times I was visiting. And, in the article's case it sounds like imaging wasn't in progress so the door was probably standing open...
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The man, 61, had entered the MRI room while a scan was underway
How was that allowed?
he asked the technician to get her husband to help her get off the table.
...while the machine was still working? And isn't that the job of the technician anyway?
the technician helped her try to pull her husband off the machine but it was impossible.
Those machines have a kill-switch for a reason.
I call this BS or a very incompetent technician.
Plus a Darwin award for the guy.The kill switch is VERY expensive to press, many thousands of dollars, and even when it does an "instant" magnet quench, by the time you hear the screams it's all over anyway, the metal has landed on the magnet. Quenching the magnet will make it let go, but it won't unbreak the neck bones.
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Isn't it an electomagnet?
it costs about thirty grand in helium every time you push it.
Oh, right, i forgot human lives have a price in the US.
It's a super conducting electromagnet, and if you quench it instantly pieces would be flying all over the room
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The US is an outlier in how it charges prices for healthcare services.
But every country in the world has prices charged for cold liquid helium. It's very expensive to gather, process, store, and ship, regardless of what kind of health care economics apply in your country.
Not just the helium, there's a considerable time spent "recharging" the magnet with electricity - many patients will lose access to MRI scan service during the multiple days it is down for recharge.
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So glad to find that Lemmy is even less empathetic than reddit was. Real faith in humanity killer. Shocking how many people decided to comment without touching the article, really proud to be here..
Welcome to the freely accessible internet. I'm sure there are "private message boards" with much more rigorous vetting of their participants, if that's what you need.
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That's an extremely privileged take. Not everyone knows about what an MRI does. Don't just judge someone's education and circumstance like that.
Common sense is that a person should be able to trust the medical professional. If the professional doesn't properly warn them, how would they know?
It's in almost every medical drama. It's also explained to you by the personnel.
Privileged is walking around with 20 pounds of shit strapped around your neck and expecting the world to yield to you.
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Carrying a 9kg necklace seems a bit silly. Though I suppose "for weight training" could just as well mean something medical, like needing to build up muscle mass after an operation.
What I need to know is: how is a man that was "not supposed to be in the room" specifically getting fetched by a technician to go into the room? I would have said "do not go past the antechamber" a dozen times on the way there. Did the wife calling out to him just turn off his brain, did the technician fail to inform him, or did they both not realise the metallic necklace was on him?
hes going to have neck problems if he had lived, 20lbs on the neck will cause spinal deformities, and disc disease.
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I'm rooting for the orca in the med that are eating rudders. Dunno why, I just think they're neat.
Heck yeah! And they apparently have been teaching other pods how to do it.
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Heck yeah! And they apparently have been teaching other pods how to do it.
ok pod, in today's class we're gonna talk about control surfaces - what good is a boat that can't steer? billy stop clubbing that seal right this moment and pay attention
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It's in almost every medical drama. It's also explained to you by the personnel.
Privileged is walking around with 20 pounds of shit strapped around your neck and expecting the world to yield to you.
Again you make an assumption that people should automatically know about an MRI. I'm privileged enough to know because I love watching medical video essays and have the free time and access to do so. Not everyone has access to the same resources as you and I. Some people didn't have the opportunity to go to college. Some people had no easy access to the internet when growing up. Some people don't have time because they're working 3 jobs to survive.
I'm not going to insult someone because they don't know about x thing, because education is meant to be for helping others, not belittling anyone you meet just because you know more than them. Your first instinct shouldn't be to ridicule a deceased person for not knowing as much as you.
Put into example it's for a newfound medical examination that both you and I have no knowledge about. You trust the professional treating you that they know what they're doing. A clinic isn't going to assume you know every little detail about this. That's the job of the clinic and their technician.
You also conveniently ignore that the technician was with the said person when he entered the room, aka he trusted the technician that he wasn't doing something wrong. It's not a case of he's not allowed to be there and just so happened to trespass in with metal. He TRUSTED the professional here that he was allowed in and that there wouldn't be any issues. The technician failed by not making sure he didn't have anything metal. They should've thoroughly checked and even double checked before letting him in.
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Again, why aren't there metal detectors at the entrances to MRI machines everywhere? For the cost of those machines, the cost of a metal detector is peanuts
not at all practical. a big ol buzzer would have prevented this maybe, but really it's the relaxed culture around the MRI that let it happen. people need to be told either you don't go past the big heavy door with the NO METALS sign, or you get all the metal off you now, or both.
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The man, 61, had entered the MRI room while a scan was underway
How was that allowed?
he asked the technician to get her husband to help her get off the table.
...while the machine was still working? And isn't that the job of the technician anyway?
the technician helped her try to pull her husband off the machine but it was impossible.
Those machines have a kill-switch for a reason.
I call this BS or a very incompetent technician.
Plus a Darwin award for the guy.the high powered magnet is always on. it's never safe to put metal near and MRI.
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Again you make an assumption that people should automatically know about an MRI. I'm privileged enough to know because I love watching medical video essays and have the free time and access to do so. Not everyone has access to the same resources as you and I. Some people didn't have the opportunity to go to college. Some people had no easy access to the internet when growing up. Some people don't have time because they're working 3 jobs to survive.
I'm not going to insult someone because they don't know about x thing, because education is meant to be for helping others, not belittling anyone you meet just because you know more than them. Your first instinct shouldn't be to ridicule a deceased person for not knowing as much as you.
Put into example it's for a newfound medical examination that both you and I have no knowledge about. You trust the professional treating you that they know what they're doing. A clinic isn't going to assume you know every little detail about this. That's the job of the clinic and their technician.
You also conveniently ignore that the technician was with the said person when he entered the room, aka he trusted the technician that he wasn't doing something wrong. It's not a case of he's not allowed to be there and just so happened to trespass in with metal. He TRUSTED the professional here that he was allowed in and that there wouldn't be any issues. The technician failed by not making sure he didn't have anything metal. They should've thoroughly checked and even double checked before letting him in.
Knowledge about how many things work in the society you live in isn't privilege, it's fucking common sense.
Also, walking around with a 20 pound fucking necklace is stupid, and especially so if you're doing something else at the time.
"He TRUSTED the professional"
Do you just give gas when the light turns green?
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Not just the helium, there's a considerable time spent "recharging" the magnet with electricity - many patients will lose access to MRI scan service during the multiple days it is down for recharge.
Dont they loose the access to the machine anyway for few day? Im under impression metal slamming to the machine usually breaks it pretty good.
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Knowledge about how many things work in the society you live in isn't privilege, it's fucking common sense.
Also, walking around with a 20 pound fucking necklace is stupid, and especially so if you're doing something else at the time.
"He TRUSTED the professional"
Do you just give gas when the light turns green?
You should probably reread the articles if you still think it's an actual necklace and not a weighted exercise tool.
I'm not gonna continue with this since you think trusting a professional is equivalent to trusting a stoplight
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That door should absolutely be locked while in operation. That door being forced open should be an e-stop event.
Someone could walk in there with a firearm or a bowey knife or anything.
Then the door will always be locked, unless the MRI is being serviced, as the magnet is always active. Kinda kills the point of the machine, no?
That said they could put in more safeguards for sure. Though you would think all the signs on and near the door, and the extensive explanation you get, would be enough. But here we are. -
Surely 9kg necklace isn't something you can just sneak around with, how was he allowed to get close enough to an MRI machine in the first place wearing it?
Because hospital staff have better things to do than baby sit every person that walks in? They are pretty well known for always being overworked already.
