10 ms·
It’s notable that he was not the patient, he was the patient’s husband who somehow was allowed to enter the room with the MRI machine. The superconducting magn
by avalys 1y ago
It’s notable that he was not the patient, he was the patient’s husband who somehow was allowed to enter the room with the MRI machine.
The superconducting magnet in an MRI scanner is always on even when not performing a scan.
This was pure and simple negligence by the MRI operators. Access control is the most basic part of MRI safety!
Even if he was not wearing this “chain”, he never should have been allowed to enter the room. He could’ve been wearing a steel wristwatch, had a keyring in his pocket, etc.
- paulryanrogers 1y agoTechnically he entered "without permission" but at the urging of the patient. Still negligence, though more understable. I wonder if a metal detector that prevents opening the door would help? Perhaps with a big, scary red override button for emergencies?
- onemoresoop 1y agoNobody should have permission and be kept away at all times by staff. They'd probably follow rules for a while now.
- WillAdams 1y agoThere is (at least according to one episode of _Grey's Anatomy_) a big scary red button to shut down the machine in an emergency, resulting in expensive to restore operation: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/m9algh/eli5_why_do_mri_machines_cost_so_much_to_shut_off/ https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/m9algh/e... According to the above post, it's a venting of the liquid helium, which requires ~$25,000 to replace).
- 9dev 1y agoWe’re talking about a human life here. Fuck the balance and vent immediately!
- egberts1 1y agoAgain, it isn't an instant-off button. Only good for removal of any metal-adorn victims and unintended metallic objects ...
- potato3732842 1y agoThe dude suffocated. You don't need anything near "instant" to prevent that. Edit: Since apparently some people need reminding, per the article he had time to say goodbye to his wife before he lost consciousness, this wasn't some liveleak skull splat type thing.
- zimpenfish 1y agoDo you have a source for that? The BBC just says "a medical episode" of which he died later.
- JackFr 1y agoMultiple heart attacks.
- zimpenfish 1y agoThat I can well believe!
- Filligree 1y agoHe was wearing a twenty pound necklace. In a magnetic field that strong? His throat was crushed, likely instantly.
- SketchySeaBeast 1y agoThe chain apparently caused him to be hurled across the room. We don't know how he died, but given the inverse square law, the possibilities are quite grisly.
- swat535 1y agoI'm not sure: "apologies, it was too expensive to turn it off, better luck next time" is a valid justification nor is it a solution.
- al_borland 1y agoIt seems like there could be a double door situation. Go through the first door, close it. The room detects metal, and only unlocks the door to the MRI if the other door is closed and no metal is in the room. I’m not sure what kind of emergency would warrant allowing metal to pass through when metal is detected, if there is a risk of death for using it.
- xboxnolifes 1y ago> I’m not sure what kind of emergency would warrant allowing metal to pass through when metal is detected, if there is a risk of death for using it. The risk would be in the false positive during an emergency situation.
- solid_fuel 1y agoA false negative is also dangerous, if the magnet hasn't been quenched. In a case like this, trying to use metal bolt cutters to cut off a necklace or something is just going to compound the disaster if the magnet is still active.
- theshrike79 1y ago"The room detects metal" is a massive cost compared to just, you know, doing what the operators tell you to do, which works in 99.99999% of the cases.
- cjbgkagh 1y agoNot sure why it would have to be a massive cost? Wouldn’t even need to be a room, a door like metal detector used normal security settings with its sensitivity turned up.
- theshrike79 1y agoNow make it medical grade and it costs an insane amount.
- potato3732842 1y agoTech: "ok we're done here" Wide: "honey can you come in here and help me since I don't have my walker" <dude walks right in and gets dead> Not hard to imagine something like that happening too fast to be stopped, especially if staff is distracted by the transition from running an MRI to getting the patient in/out.
- LeifCarrotson 1y ago> "I'm saying, 'Could you turn off the machine? Call 911. Do something. Turn this damn thing off!'" [pleaded the victim's wife]. The journalist missed a golden opportunity for education here: most MRI scanner magnets cannot be turned off like that. For the few that can, it's going to cost >$50,000 just to refill the liquid helium, not to mention the real and opportunity costs associated with rendering the machine offline for days or weeks. If people don't know about the magnet, or don't know that it can't be turned off (or perhaps assume it's "off" because the scan was over, as I would guess happened here), accidents happen.
- DanielleMolloy 1y agoMRI techs do not think about it cost when life is at danger. If someone is in life danger due to the magnet, you quench. This is standard MRI education. I think the big question here is why they didn’t..
- Aeolun 1y agoYou are going to have to turn it off if there’s a body attached to your machine too, so that’s not much of a lost opportunity.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- josephcsible 1y ago> most MRI scanner magnets cannot be turned off like that. For the few that can, it's going to cost >$50,000 just to refill the liquid helium, not to mention the real and opportunity costs associated with rendering the machine offline for days or weeks. I thought these days, most MRIs did have an emergency quench button.
- jpgvm 1y agoYeah I would say all modern MRIs do. However one misconception is that loss of field strength is instantanous, it's not. The field strength drops off over about 15s or so as the helium boils off and the magnet losses superconducting properties. So the emergency quench is less useful than it sounds in these situations... it's very likely if an MRI is going to kill you it's going to do it fast enough for it not to be relevant.
- pxtail 1y ago> The superconducting magnet in an MRI scanner is always on even when not performing a scan. This should be placed on the entrance with big bold letters, I think that a lot of accidents could be avoided by simply providing "WHY" information. I had MRI scan and I wasn't aware that machine was active even when not performing scan and now after knowing that I think that personnel there was very lax with allowing me to enter the room after instructing me to put metal objects away AND without enough emphasis how dangerous it could be if I forgot to do so.
- nancyminusone 1y agoThey do. You'll be hard pressed to find a magnet room without this [0] sign on the door. That said, it's probably not that warning to most people. Fridge magnets are always on too. 0 - https://www.zzmedical.com/exclusives/mri-warning-wall-sign-magnet-always-on.html https://www.zzmedical.com/exclusives/mri-warning-wall-sign-m...
- Aeolun 1y agoYeah, saying ‘serious injury may occur’ is the same as saying serious injury may occur when doing sports. It’s too abstract. I need an image of my keys being ripped out of my pocket and being stuck to the machine to really understand what will happen.
- Ajedi32 1y agoI think the giant red "DANGER!" makes it pretty clear the sign is not talking about such a superficial risk.
- jlokier 1y agoI tried to look. "Access Denied - Sucuri Website Firewall"
- ryandvm 1y agoHow hard is it to gate the patient entrance to the MRI with a big-ass metal detector turned up to 11? Why is this still a problem?
- scarier 1y agoThis is already a common practice. One of the issues with the standard implementation is that it’s set up as an administrative control rather than an engineering control (which would be significantly more difficult/expensive/space-consuming). At least one other comment thread has discussed the airlock implementation that I’m sure a very large number of people have independently thought of.
- Cthulhu_ 1y agoOr gate it, period - nobody should get in that easily.
- SketchySeaBeast 1y agoI wonder if that's a problem in case a medical intervention is required.
- sfn42 1y agoThe emergency personnel still needs to be controlled to make sure they aren't carrying magnetic stuff.
- whatevaa 1y agoIt is.
- littlestymaar 1y agoThere are locked doors with badges pretty much everywhere in a hospital in my country though (including the door leading to the ER, and the escalator which goes from the ER to the ICU, in my city's hospital), so I don't really understand what would prevent to put such a door at the entrance of the MRI room.
- theshrike79 1y agoThe average MRI operator isn't going to start wrestling with a dude with a 20 pound metal chain around his neck. They'll try to talk sense into you, but they're not security guards nor trained in close combat. Nor are the doors locked or secured, they kinda assume that people don't just rush in and do as they're told.
- codyb 1y agoIs there any indication this man was aggressively trying to enter the room before the technician eventually let him in? The article just says his wife called out to him, then the tech let him in and that's it.
- MisterTea 1y agoI am willing to bet a lot of money he was going into that room no matter how many times he was told not to or how many signs were posted. Some people have an extreme contempt for authority and will stubbornly ignore direction. Sometimes,bad things happen to them.