Posts Tagged ‘patient’

I Love Being Wrong…

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Alright, I don’t love the fact of being wrong, but my mission is to motivate improvements in MRI safety for patients, staff, and providers. I’m not the least bit interested in having the longest list of ‘I told you so’ moments, and I’m uncomfortable when someone applies the term ‘guru’ to me. I am openly, vocally, critical of organizations when I feel that they haven’t lived up to their obligation to reinforce MRI safety standards, so when one of them does well, I can’t tell you how happy I am to eat my prior words, and today is an example of that…

Click To Read Who Tobias Was Wrong About…

30% Of Contraindicated Implant Patients Get MRIs Anyway!

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

And what’s even more alarming is that 20% of those implant patients that get MRIs experience some sort of device malfunction afterward! And yet, the dangers of imaging these patients are not well known by the doctors who prescribe these imaging studies.

Click To Learn Just How Many Doctors and Patients Are Ill-Informed Of These Risks…

MRI Projectile Accidents – One Exemplar

Friday, February 19th, 2010

How to pick just one when there are a number of alarming, tragic, and needless MRI accidents to choose from? Let’s look at one that we can help the reader better imagine, the case of a pair of flying scissors that had to be surgically removed from a technologist’s forehead…

Click For The Rest Of This Story…

$2.9 Million Settlement Closes Colombini MRI Death Case

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

This week the settlement documents were released — closing the chapter on the lawsuit that arose from the seminal event in MRI safety, the 2001 oxygen tank fatality of then-six-year-old Michael Colombini.

Click To Learn More About The Accident And Settlement…

Gurney Crashes MRI, Patient Injured, Hospital Fined $50K

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

It is the stuff of fabled oral-histories, often dismissed as MRI urban-legend. The patient is wheeled into the MRI room on a gurney that goes flying toward the scanner. “How on Earth could these accidents happen when we know about these risks,” the skeptics question? Almost never does more than a single fragment of information surface about these sorts of accidents and, without verification, nearly all accounts can be erroneously written-off as fiction. Or, that was until enough pieces fell into place to conclusively document a recent episode… Click Here To Read More About MRI Gurney Accidents…

 
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Can We Still Call Them ‘Never Events’ When Accidents Happen So Frequently In MRI?

Monday, December 7th, 2009

This post attempts to draw-together two recent threads from here on the MRI Metal Detector blog. First, there was a long-running question about the FDA and their online-accessible database of medical device accidents which, for months, appeared to be malfunctioning, and recently was repaired. Second, there was my post in which I identified 5 MRI ‘Never Events’ which, if industry standard procedures are followed, should never occur.

Click For Several Recent Examples Of MRI Never Events…

Two Upcoming MRI Safety Presentations

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

“Hello Orlando!”

“Hello Orlando!”

No, there’s not an echo in this posting. I’m simply rehearsing for two nearly-back-to-back presentations on MRI safety issues to different groups, both in Orlando, Florida, in the weeks ahead.

Click To Read About The Two Presentations…

The Boy Who Cried “Trial”!

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Yes, I think I’ve written at least twice before about the imminent start of the trial for the civil lawsuit stemming from the Michael Colombini fatal MRI accident in 2001. And, yes, I was wrong both times before. So, I would expect nothing less than readers of this entry to take my 3rd prognostication of the start of the trial with something more than a grain of salt… perhaps an entire salt lick! But today a little birdie told me that there’s a hole in the otherwise-booked New York Supreme Court trial schedule for late October / early November and the Colombini trial may just fit right in there.

Click Here To Read More About The Trial…

The Bad Economy Causes MRI Accidents

Friday, September 11th, 2009

OK, our yearlong economic near-catastrophe has had far-reaching effects and is a ready-made excuse for all sorts of evils in the world.

wife: “Honey, why didn’t you vacuum the living room like I asked?”

husband: “Well, in this time of economic uncertainty, I felt that it would be unwise to both use more electricity for something as superfluous as vacuuming, as well as hasten the demise of our vacuum by using it before it was absolutely necessary…”

But, in fact, economic conditions do have the outward appearances of being a contributing factor in increasing rates of MRI accidents. Click Here To Read How…

Colombini Case – Lawsuit Machinations

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Last month, the judge in the Michael Colombini lawsuit (the case resulting from the infamous death by oxygen tank / cylinder brought into the MRI room while the boy was in the scanner) decided on three of the last outstanding pre-trial motions. The Judge’s decisions appear to have excused one defendant, entirely, and tempered the degree of potential liability for others.

Click Here To Learn Who’s In, And Who’s Out…