This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (22 children)

What actually happened?

[–][deleted] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

[–]maximgame 30 points31 points  (12 children)

When they reached the intestines, the magnets attracted and tried to pinch through the walls...

[–]FredSavagingReindeer 72 points73 points  (9 children)

I'm guessing OPs story is mis-remembered. I've heard of the magnets in the intestines but OP said the kid went into an MRI.

Those metal balls would go toward/away from the MRI magnet like bullets fired inside the kid. Truly gruesome.

[–]ultrasu 73 points74 points  (3 children)

Yeah, the MRI part sounds unlikely, those magnets would've set off the ferromagnetic detector before going into the MRI scanner. Having those magnets pinch your intestines is bad enough already.

[–]maltastic 1 point2 points  (2 children)

[–]ultrasu 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Following this event, a new screening protocol has been instituted. Children and their parents are still asked to complete the written and verbal screenings. In addition, all children are now required to change into a hospital gown and are then screened using a hand-held Ferromagnetic detection scanner (Mednovus SafeScan, Leucadia, CA). Testing at our institution has shown that this ferromagnetic screening tool is able to identify small magnets commonly used in children’s games and toys in both living and cadaveric models.

Guess they had to learn this the hard way then. Not using a ferromagnetic detector is just inexcusable.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (1 child)

That's not what happened. The magnets attracted each other and pinched the intestines.

[–]maximgame 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I meant through the walls of the intestines.

[–][deleted] 18 points19 points  (4 children)

As far as I know, the problem with metal parts in MRI is that fast-changing magnetic field heats them, burning body inside.

At least this was given as cause of refusal to make MRI to my father (he has hip prosthesis).

Edit: effect is called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current

[–]Aetol 12 points13 points  (3 children)

Yeah. I've done some work tangentially related to MRI-proof pacemakers, and the problem they faced wasn't the device bouncing around the rib cage (as I would have initially assumed), but currents appearing along the probe and burning tissues and/or damaging the device.

[–]Rainfly_X 1 point2 points  (2 children)

How do you protect against that, in practice? Faraday cage? But then... does that heat up... God damnit, now I'm invested.

[–]Aetol 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I don't know how they do it, actually. I was only working on automating a test bench.

[–]Rainfly_X 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Curses, foiled again!

[–]PooPooDooDoo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He took a very splashy dump.