Flying Oxygen Tank Kills Boy In MRI Check
1 August 2001
VALHALLA, New York - A six-year-old boy undergoing an MRI examination died after the machine's powerful magnet pulled a metal oxygen tank through the air, fracturing his skull.
Officials at the Westchester Medical Centre said the tank was brought into the examination room accidentally after the boy, Michael Colombini, was put in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine and the 10-tonne electromagnet had been switched on.
The oxygen tank was 'immediately magnetised and drawn to the centre of the machine, causing head trauma to the child', the medical centre said.
The medical examiner's office said Michael died on Sunday, two days after the incident.
An MRI generates images of the body using an electromagnet, radio waves and a computer. It is used in the diagnosis of many diseases and is considered nearly risk-free.
But there have been several MRI accidents, some of them fatal, involving metal objects as small as paper clips. One woman who underwent an MRI died after a clip became imbedded in her brain.
Another who forgot to pull a hairpin out of her hair required a procedure to extract it after the pin travelled up her nose and lodged in her pharynx.
And last year, an MRI magnet pulled a gun out of the hand of a police officer and the gun shot a round that lodged in a wall.
In last Friday's incident, Michael had had surgery to remove a brain tumour before the MRI exam.
Mr Edward Stolzenberg, president and chief executive officer of the medical centre, said: 'The entire medical centre is grieving.'
He said Westchester Medical assumed full responsibility.
Even though no metal objects are supposed to be in the testing area, a metal oxygen tank somehow made it into the examination room. Officials would not say who took it in.
The hospital and the State Department of Health are investigating, and the Westchester District Attorney's office is also reviewing the case. -- AP, New York Times
Source: The New Straitstimes Interactive, Singapore
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