Woman left in CT scanner after clinic closes !!

Hmmm... that makes me wonder:

Why would a radiologist ever stop a procedure without checking on the patient after the procedure?

Why would a CT scanner be designed to allow the table in, run a scan, and then not let the table back out without some sort of warning? IMO the console that the radiologist is using should beep in an annoying way (much like the Prius reverse beep) until that table comes out.

Why don't CT scanners have a panic button inside? I've been in one and it might be a comfort to patients to know that at any point they can "punch out."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FloridaWen @ Oct 1 2007, 10:07 AM) [snapback]519857[/snapback]</div>

Say what? This makes me suspicious of the entire episode. I checked Snopes but there's nothing there yet, but I'll bet this shows up as debunked eventually. There're some other aspects of the tale that also ring false, so I await further developments from "The Rest of the Story's" best friend - nope, not Paul Harvey, but Snopes.com.

MB

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Oct 1 2007, 02:24 PM) [snapback]519893[/snapback]</div>

Yes, it does smell fishy. For one thing, why would it take hours to crawl out of a CT scanner? They are mostly a big donut with a table that moves in and out. At no time is the patient completely inside, as you are with an MR scanner. Even with an MR scanner, it's not that hard to crawl out. I've done it a hundred times (I used to head an engineering department that designed MR scanners, and we spent a fair amount of time running test scans on each other). Something is not right here, unless the patient had other problems that prevented her from functioning normally (always possible with a medical patient).

Tom

 

At least she wasn't this boy:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...754C0A9679C8B63

 

Well, if it's a hoax, plenty of news outlets were fooled.

Article on Yahoo News.

 

Get used to this sort of thing with the comming socialized health care. At least with private corporations they can be held accountable with litigation. Once socialised medicine is instituted YOU WILL LOSE YOUR RIGHT TO SUE DOCTORS PRACTICING IN THE SYSTEM FOR MALPRACTICE. The Government will impart the same immunity on the doctors that it now enjoys. They will do this in part to save money from lawsuits and to entice doctors to work for lower wages by not worrying about lawsuits.

 

I am a registered MR and CT technologist and I find it easy to believe this happened to that women.

In our area, a patient was left in an MRI machine. The patient woke up in darkness and when she got out of the machine and opened the door, that tripped the alarm to the police. They responded with guns drawn. Unbelievably this woman did not sue. After this incident was reported in the newspaper, I was asked by almost every patient if they would be left in the magnet. That lasted for over a couple of years.
The boy killed in the MRI resulted in almost all patients asking me if there were any oxygen tanks in the room. The answer was yes, but they are titanium tanks. The site responsible for the boy's death had over 18 safety citations/violations, and this was in a large medical center.

Both incidents are largely forgotten now, at least until another case of negligence happens.

MR and CT machines do not have the tables automatically come out. A technologist has to manually bring the table out. You do not want a table moving on it's own without someone supervising that nothing is getting caught in the table, more possible negligence there. What you really want is a competent, registered technologist doing your exams. Stay awake, alert and if not capable of that, have someone with you. With today's medicine, you really have to be an advocate for yourself as a patient, no on else will be.

I enjoy my work, I'm a techie at heart and love these machines, but to be really good I have to care about the people that are my patients. I do care about patients and my work, but like any job, there are people that just "punch the clock". The only reason they would feel bad about leaving some one in a scanner would be if they lost their paycheck. They should all lose their licenses/registrations, but don't, think about that.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prudence @ Oct 3 2007, 09:07 PM) [snapback]520932[/snapback]</div>

Leaving a patient doesn't surprise me, but it still doesn't explain why it took hours to crawl out of a CT scanner. I'm still puzzling about that.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ Oct 3 2007, 09:18 PM) [snapback]520936[/snapback]</div>

As people age, they loose connection with their bodies. Elderly (and some not so elderly) people cannot lay on their stomachs when I ask them to sometimes. They have forgotten how to do it, the mechanics of how to do it, since most people do not lay prone very often as they age, unless they sleep on their stomachs. They give me a blank look and have no idea of where to start. They can become quite agitated because they think they should be able to do this, but they cannot without instruction or assistance.

That it took this woman "hours" to get free of the machine isn't much of a stretch to imagine. A lot of people have no sense of time, so that's the first possiblility. And again, being older and sick, trying to get off a table and out from under a blanket can be a huge task for some depending on their physical and mental condition and what medications they are on.

When you are relatively young and healthy it is very hard to understand why other people cannot do basic functions or why it would take someone so long to do a simple task. I see this everyday, for a variety of reasons, sadly.
Do those crossword puzzles and exercise. And hope you inherited good DNA.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prudence @ Oct 4 2007, 07:25 AM) [snapback]521069[/snapback]</div>

Older and sick are the key points. In a past life, I headed an engineering department that designed MR scanners. It was amazing how many people couldn't take being inside of a tube. Claustrophobia would get to them. Our scanners had the largest bore in the industry, but it was still a problem. Many sick people found it extremely hard to be still for 20 minutes or so while a scan was running.

As for good DNA, my 85 year old parents can still get up and down from the floor and climb ladders. My wife and I are in our fifties and rock climb on a regular basis, and I play ice hockey with a lot of men in their sixties. When you are healthy it's easy to forget that many people are not, regardless of age, and the chances of poor health increase when you are sampling from the pool of CT patients.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ Oct 4 2007, 09:15 AM) [snapback]521103[/snapback]</div>

Thank those parents!
My dad at 83 still cuts the grass and wouldn't have it any other way. They drove down to South Carolina from Indiana this week for a bit of vacation. They are hanging in there and enjoying life.

 

BALONEY

This happened in Ariziona, not the UK or Canada.



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Devil's Advocate @ Oct 2 2007, 01:08 PM) [snapback]520374[/snapback]</div>