this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 11 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Carrying a 9kg necklace seems a bit silly. Though I suppose "for weight training" could just as well mean something medical, like needing to build up muscle mass after an operation.

What I need to know is: how is a man that was "not supposed to be in the room" specifically getting fetched by a technician to go into the room? I would have said "do not go past the antechamber" a dozen times on the way there. Did the wife calling out to him just turn off his brain, did the technician fail to inform him, or did they both not realise the metallic necklace was on him?

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 6 points 12 hours ago

hes going to have neck problems if he had lived, 20lbs on the neck will cause spinal deformities, and disc disease.

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 11 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

After reading another article: nope, necklace was just a huge locket on a chain. And the wife said "Keith, Keith, come help me up" which sound to me like:

  • wife was making a big fuss for no good reason (might have had a reason according to a 3rd article)
  • husband obeyed as any good husband would
  • technician didn't inform the husband that his wife would be carted out of the MRI room and failed to react fast enough

If I was married and a bit dumber, I could probably also be lured to my death with my name being called out twice in that fashion. Really depends how good the signage was and how well the husband was informed.

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 6 points 13 hours ago

They have extensive screening and education and safeguard procedures, for the patients. I'm guessing hubby skipped (probably wasn't even offered) all those and just dashed in the door when called. Tech still should have put hubby through "the talk" if he was anywhere close to the door to the room.

MRI is one of the most sci-fi come to life technologies most people are likely to encounter in their lives. Superconducting magnets are about as non-intuitive as it gets, once they get you past the point of your ability to resist the force, there's no recovery - you're going faster and faster until the metal hits the housing. There have been multiple accidents with steel oxygen cylinders - for the obvious reason: they're so common in the environment where MRIs are used, and it's no small feat to get the cylinder removed.

[–] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 2 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Uhm, article I read said it was a training accessory and the wife had fallen on the floor and needed help.

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

But the husband was called to get her off the table? Did she fall while the technician was away? Shouldn't there have been a 2nd person to supervise her, or is that too expensive? And she did help in trying to get him unstuck, so she could get up on her own then? How are there so many important details to this?

That's it, as fun as it is to speculate, I think I'll reserve my judgement until after this has gone to court.

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 2 points 13 hours ago

The major failure in this case was lack of education / restraint of the husband. Before he got within 25 feet of the MRI room door, he should have had "the talk" about metal objects and MRIs not mixing, deadly consequences, etc. Other things could have helped, but I suspect the local safety procedures are patient focused and hubby didn't get properly educated before entering the danger zone.

[–] Mad_Punda@feddit.org 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Can’t even begin to imagine how the wife feels now.

[–] DarthKaren@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

She probably feels pulled in 2 directions. The weight of calling in her husband to charge in and help her must be great. I'm sure the tech is also crushed that they weren't fast enough to oppose him entering the restricted area. It's a tragic set of circumstances that will hopefully attract more awareness of the dangers of entering the MRI area if you haven't properly prepared.

I had an MRI, many years ago, and had a very small sliver of metal in my finger tip. I didn't know it was in there still. I felt the pain of it pulling as soon as I left the MRI tech's control room.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 26 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Again, why aren't there metal detectors at the entrances to MRI machines everywhere? For the cost of those machines, the cost of a metal detector is peanuts

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago

not at all practical. a big ol buzzer would have prevented this maybe, but really it's the relaxed culture around the MRI that let it happen. people need to be told either you don't go past the big heavy door with the NO METALS sign, or you get all the metal off you now, or both.

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 5 points 13 hours ago

A - standard metal detectors probably won't work well right at the MRI room door. Some facilities may have a longer hallway for access and putting one there, far from the actual MRI suite, would make a lot of sense (I think I visited one location that had that layout), but not all facilities are laid out in a way that that could work.

B - the nature of how a metal detector works would probably have negative impacts on MRI image quality if it is too close to the imager - even outside the shield room door.

I did a sort of tour of a couple dozen MRI facilities for a couple of years, the stronger ones all have radio-frequency shield rooms complete with metal / gasketed doors that are supposed to be closed during imaging. Actual practice regarding keeping those doors closed was pretty loose in the places / times I was visiting. And, in the article's case it sounds like imaging wasn't in progress so the door was probably standing open...

[–] MadnessForTsar@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (4 children)

9 kilograms Necklace?! What kind of necklace is that?

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

A chain with a 9kg bell weight.

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[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 32 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The man, 61, had entered the MRI room while a scan was underway

How was that allowed?

he asked the technician to get her husband to help her get off the table.

...while the machine was still working? And isn't that the job of the technician anyway?

the technician helped her try to pull her husband off the machine but it was impossible.

Those machines have a kill-switch for a reason.

I call this BS or a very incompetent technician.
Plus a Darwin award for the guy.

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago

the high powered magnet is always on. it's never safe to put metal near and MRI.

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 11 points 13 hours ago

The kill switch is VERY expensive to press, many thousands of dollars, and even when it does an "instant" magnet quench, by the time you hear the screams it's all over anyway, the metal has landed on the magnet. Quenching the magnet will make it let go, but it won't unbreak the neck bones.

[–] UnspecificGravity@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago (17 children)

Couple things:

The magnet is ALWAYS on.

The "kill switch" takes about five minutes to actually deactivate the magnet and it costs about thirty grand in helium every time you push it.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Not to mention it's not renewable. Once it his the upper atmosphere, you can't get it back.

[–] BorgDrone@feddit.nl 1 points 5 hours ago

It’s Helium, it’s not exactly rare.

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[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 25 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Surely 9kg necklace isn't something you can just sneak around with, how was he allowed to get close enough to an MRI machine in the first place wearing it?

[–] Decq@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Because hospital staff have better things to do than baby sit every person that walks in? They are pretty well known for always being overworked already.

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