But then, typically after I’ve lost all hope of seeing anything that approaches reality, something plausible and even downright real is shown on one of these programs…

OK, so there are probably 100 unreal aspects to the above clip (like MD’s, even though they’re residents, bringing the patient to the MR to run the scan themselves). But the main message, the patient bed being drawn to the MR, is a concern. And the concern is not theoretical, but is in fact quite real.

Beyond the above photo, an anecdote was shared with me by a trusted source of an accident somewhat similar to the video clip above.

In the story, an end-stage AIDS patient in a hospital is brought down for an MRI and, like in the video, is transported into the MRI scanner room on a conventional hospital bed. As in the video, the magnet attracts the bed which rolls across the floor until it strikes face of the MRI machine. The impact of the front end of the bed (where the patient’s feet are) against the machine causes the back end of the bed (where the patient’s head is) to lift up off the ground momentarily. The magnetic field of the MRI is pulling on the back end of the bed, however, and essentially catapults the back end of the bed over the front end, smashing the patient’s face and upper-body against the outside of the MRI scanner.

According to my source, the patient died a couple days later and the official cause of death was identified as ‘complications from AIDS’ and there was no explanation offered for the severe facial contusions and fractures that were present at the time of death.

Now, I wouldn’t suggest that you take every fish-story you hear at face value, but the more I learn about the breadth and breathtaking frequency of MRI projectile accidents, the less skeptical I’ve become about the relative ‘impossibility’ of the anecdotes I’ve heard. Some of the most outlandish and improbable have proven to be true.

Per the aphorism, “as soon as you make something foolproof, they come out with a better fool,” there is no way to 100% prevent projectile accidents in the MRI suite. However, the fact that we can’t make a safety solution ‘foolproof’ is no reason to reject the healthy improvement that we can make with improvements to process and technology.

Appropriate staffing levels, regular MR staff training, access controls tied to screening protocols, and ferromagnetic detection systems all help to reduce the risks of projectile accidents in the MRI suite. The first three of these four options have been well known elements of MRI safety for years, and yet projectile accidents keep occurring and the overall rates of MRI accidents appears to be climbing… alarmingly.

Simply put, we have the ability to make these sorts of accidents largely fictional, left to ER and House, but we haven’t done so. And when prime-time television is more honest about MRI accidents than the industry is (even if their honesty is purely coincidental), we’ve all got a way to go.

No, not me, the author, but the figurative ‘me‘, this blog…

I don’t know if you’ve ever used them, but all of the major internet search engines have tools that you can use to find images that match your search criteria. Every so often there’s a new paparazzi picture of some starlet in mid-wardrobe-malfunction or a politician with a facial expression that looks like they just smelled something awful that become the ‘it’ picture of the day.

Well, based on the number of hits our blog has been getting recently, and the image search tools that many of these hits are coming from, apparently we have a lesser ‘it’ picture, and it has nothing to do with politics or racy nudity…

It’s a picture of an ICU bed stuck to the face of an MRI.

Pictures of things stuck to magnets often generate wide-eyed looks, even laughter. After all, the juxtaposition can be pretty silly. But each of these pictures is only possible because of horrible mishaps that can each result in serious injury, or even fatality.

We encourage people to find and view these pictures, not to have a larger number of viewers snicker at them. We put them up to help deflate the ‘that could never happen here’ mythology that is dangerous. If you can see magnets, floor polishers, oxygen cylinders, wheelchairs or, as above, ICU beds that look like ones in use at the hospital or imaging center, then maybe the internal monologue becomes something more like, ‘what would have to happen here for us to have a similar accident?’

Most importantly, we hope that all of these efforts work to motivate Technologists, Radiographers, Imaging Managers, Radiologists, Risk-Managers and Compliance Officers to imagine which steps they could take at their locations to reduce the likelihood of these sorts of accidents.

There are many steps that can be taken to help improve the effectiveness of pre-screening for magnet hazards. One of the most obvious is also one of the easiest, the use of ferromagnetic detectors.

We encourage you to view and share the information contained on these pages and we hope that each of these resources, even the racy pictures of MRI missile accidents, help shape improvements to MRI safety at your facilities.

After all, I’m lot more than just a pretty face…

As everyone who’s spent more than an hour or two around an MRI knows, these super high-strength magnets have a reputation for ‘sucking-in’ ferromagnetic materials that are so prevalent in wheelchairs, gurneys, gas cylinders, fire extinguisher, and carts.

In the last few years, there’s been a spate of floor polishers that have found their way into MRI scanners across the country…

But while there’s a nearly universal urge to snicker at these images, it is important to realize two crucial things about each and every projectile accident.

First: Each and every MRI missile effect accident is theoretically 100% avoidable. By prospectively identifying the ferromagnetic nature of materials before they’re brought into the MRI suite, none of these need to happen. By following best practices including the ACR’s Guidance Document, or the Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert, and deploying ferromagnetic detection screening of all people and materials approaching the MRI scanner, it is possible to prevent projectile accidents.

Second: Each and every ferromagnetic projectile incident has all the ingredients for injury. While there is only one official account of a projectile-related fatality, there are many, many reports of injury, a good number of which have been severe. And given the abysmal rates of MRI accident reporting, it’s entirely believable that other anecdotal accounts of MRI-projectile fatalities are more fact than fiction.

These projectile accidents are more commonplace, and more dangerous than many are aware. So what can you can do to avoid becoming a part of the MRI missile accident scrapbook? Start by reviewing all of your MRI safety protocols, and consider deploying ferromagnetic detection screening for each and every MRI.

PS: If you’d like to find more pictures, and even a video or two, on MRI accidents, I encourage you to check out www.SimplyPhysics.com/flying_objects.html