I like to keep my finger on the pulse of MRI accidents and safety issues. One consequence of this is that I frequent the FDA’s MAUDE database (MAUDE is a tortured acronym for medical device user-reported mishaps). I have long criticized the FDA for their half-hearted efforts at collecting MRI accident data (which, in fairness, appears to be as much a product of congressional limitations on the FDA’s power as anything else), but MAUDE has been the only national database for these accidents that is publicly accessible.
Every so often there is an MRI accident description that is so stunning that it sends a jolt through me, reminding me why I do what I do. This is the entry that I came across just two weeks ago…