Long Island man wearing 9kg-metal necklace dies after being sucked into MRI machine
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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.
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Not to mention it's not renewable. Once it his the upper atmosphere, you can't get it back.
It’s Helium, it’s not exactly rare.
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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.No, signs aren't enough obviously. This is definitely not the first time we've heard of stories of people coming in with guns, chairs what have you.
It's not everyday, so maybe it's not warranted... But if you look at the things we apply security to we secure against a lot of things that never happen
Given the apparent danger of the device. There's still plenty of options for security.
How about a set of man trap doors and a metal detector. The outside pair is unlocked. When you step through the metal detector, If a safe amount of metal is detected the outside door is locked and the inside doors unlock.
You don't need a very sensitive metal detector The extra construction around two doors, and a small door controller / locks would be super insignificant to the price of the machine.
If you use cam locks the emergency egress would still be fine. Maybe you'd need to sense the outer door being shut to make sure somebody doesn't hold the door for someone else.
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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.
Well, the thing is, to kill the magnetic field within a few seconds would break the machine, so they don't do that because it would up the cost of a shutdown from tens of thousands of dollars to several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the downtime would go from several days to potentially several months.
As it is they "quench" the superconducting electromagnet, which then requires a large amount of LH2 and electricity to get going again. I have heard numbers like $30,000 to get the magnet running again, not counting lost revenue during the many days it takes to get going.
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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
It's the same thing as a stoplight. The green light just means it's legal to go, not that it's safe.
Same goes with your blind trust in professionals. Medicine is the last place you'd do that.
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What an unfortunate chain of events
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Well, the thing is, to kill the magnetic field within a few seconds would break the machine, so they don't do that because it would up the cost of a shutdown from tens of thousands of dollars to several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the downtime would go from several days to potentially several months.
As it is they "quench" the superconducting electromagnet, which then requires a large amount of LH2 and electricity to get going again. I have heard numbers like $30,000 to get the magnet running again, not counting lost revenue during the many days it takes to get going.
Well the thing is still that the weighted necklace pulled by 1.5 to 3 tesla towards the machine will also put it the machine out if comission from several days to several months.
Also the down time of the machine depend from so many things like availbility of components, logistics and the actual damage happened, that even the most pragmatic operator could never calculate the price of the repair versus the value of the possibility of saving human life.
FFS the saved 30k only buys pretty decent slightly used car. Its sick to even start to weight that kind of money to human life.
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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.
not at all practical
Simple question: why?
You put in a metal detector, and hell, a second door that won't open if metal was detected. These aren't the costs compared to the cost of a single MRI machine.
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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...
I'm sorry but it can't be that hard to have an automated lock on the door. If metal detectors influence the machine, which is possible, then out them further away. Again, with MRI machines costing what they do, these aren't the prices you would worry about.
