Look out! It’s the dark side of the magnetic force
“It’s like Russian roulette, except that many don’t know that they’re even playing,” says Tobias Gilk, a California-based MRI safety consultant. MRI scanners have electromagnets so powerful that they can dislodge pacemakers, suck in beds from across the room and turn small metal objects into dangerous “ferromagnetic projectiles”. Gilk now collects data and reports of incidents at mrimetaldetector.com/blog. Here are six of Wired’s favourite MRI metal menaces.
Floor polisherThis is so common that the internet has whole galleries of trapped cleaning machines. Floor polishers end up stuck in scanners when cleaners stroll into MRI facilities out of hours and only realise they’re in trouble when their equipment starts to gravitate towards the magnet.
Metal gurneyA patient and a metal gurney were both lifted off the ground and pulled towards the magnet as they were accidentally wheeled into the MRI room. The scanner had to be shut down in order to free the bed, and the unlucky patient suffered from foot, ankle and leg fractures.
PistolAn MRI machine disarmed an off-duty US police officer. She forgot she was carrying her Glock pistol as she accompanied her mother, who was being scanned. The gun was pulled by the magnetic force, jamming her hand between the pistol and the machine and trapping the officer.
Flat-screenA member of the public who was inside the scanner solely for research purposes got badly injured when hospital staff walked a flat-screen monitor through the room. The magnetic field tried to put the screen and the participant in the same place; the next stop was casualty.
ScissorsAn MRI technician ended up with a pair of scissors embedded in his forehead as he prepared a patient. Someone entered the scanner room with the scissors in their pocket -- they were pulled out by the magnet and collided arrowstyle with the technician’s head.
WheelchairA wheelchair brought into the danger area shot across the room and pinned a radiographer to the scanner. The staff member was unharmed but a patient waiting for her scan was so frightened she fell off the bed and broke her leg.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
