MRI accident in news

In October several news outlets reported a fatal accident involving an oxygen tank pulled into an MRI machine. The accident happened on October 14th in a South Korean city of Kim-hae, and killed a man in his 60s. A quick internet search revealed a few details:

- The hospital where this happened was Kap-Eul general hospital in the town of Jangyoo-dong.

- The hospital homepage lists a GE HDxt scanner (1.5T) as their MRI equipment.

- The hospital did not use the available in-room oxygen supply, and the tank was on a wheeled carrier which was also pulled into the magnet.

One thing that many news reports are saying incorrectly is that the MRI machine attracted the tank as the scan started, which ignores the fact that the magnetic field is always on. What must have happened is that the tank was moved, possibly slightly, by somebody and fell over the "magnetic cliff" near the bore entrance. Then its flying as a projectile is uncontrollable. This is tragic, and makes one wish to have some kind of magnetic barrier set up around the scanner. Above to the left is a drawing I made for an MRI engineering course in SKKU illustrating the abrupt magnetic pull of a shielded MRI magnet.