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Comment by atmavatar | Hacker News Reader

In addition to that:

> She said she had called him into the room after she had a scan on Wednesday.

Part of me wonders why the wife felt empowered to invite her husband, who she knew was wearing a giant metal necklace, into the MRI room after her scan. The hospital would have been very clear with her about the dangers of wearing any metal in the room even when the scanner was not running especially because it's common for women to wear jewelry containing various metals and alloys.

Presumably, the husband would have been part of those conversations as well, and thus, should have refrained from joining her in the room anyway, so he isn't completely absolved of responsibility.

It seems there's plenty of blame to go around.

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Just force of habit. Being around such forceful magnets is not a daily occurrence so you don't really think about this sort of thing (for both the wife and husband). I can totally see how something like this happens.

I once bought a can of coke and put it in my backpack, then I forgot about it. At the airport a few hours later I went through security and didn't think about it at all. No idea why my bag was selected for a manual check. Until he pulled out the soda can. Big (but harmless) do'h moment. People's brains and memories are just wonky like that sometimes; most people have a few "I'm an idiot" anecdotes like that. Even with training by the way: which is why checklists exists for safety critical stuff. "They have been warned about MRI dangers" is pretty meaningless.

The failure is 100% on the facility for not properly controlling access to the MRI room, and people can just walk in apparently(?) And no, a sign or some briefing doesn't cut it.

This is also a risk for absent-minded staff by the way: I don't think I'm the only person who has walked in the wrong room by accident. Or just a small confusion about whether the MRI is operational. Things like that.

I just got an MRI. No warning about dangers of having any metal in the room was mentioned verbally. Was asked if I had any metal in my body, not told why. I just said no to that question. That was it.

> The hospital would have been very clear with her about the dangers of wearing any metal in the room even when the scanner was not running especially because it's common for women to wear jewelry containing various metals and alloys.

It was not in a hospital: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44630969

You say "hospital" but this was basically an amateur run MRI salon as far as I can tell.

> she was getting an MRI on her knee and asked her husband to come in to help her get up afterwards

The people getting MRIs are sicker than the general population so the facility should have people available to help getting people up after being scanned.

Most people included myself don't realize the risks of a MRI

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