A 34-year-old woman, Ram Kumari, was seriously injured in a freak accident that occurred in the MRI room of the Dr BR Ambedkar Hospital on Monday morning.

Ram Kumari, who had undergone an MRI for her spinal fracture, got badly stuck in the machine and sustained serious injuries on her jaw and head when the metal stretcher brought in by her family to shift her literally became a projectile and hit the machine hard after being pulled in due to the heavy magnetic field around the machine.

The mishap was a result of sheer negligence of the staff of the MRI room, as they directed the family to remove the patient from the machine without warning them about use of metallic objects near the machine.

According to experts, modern day MRI machines have extremely powerful magnets in them, with powers ranging between 0.5-Tesla to 3.0-Teslaor 5,000 to 30,000 gauss (in contrast to Earth’s mere 0.5-gauss magnetic field), and callous use of metallic objects around it can lead to disastrous consequences. Despite the fact that use of metallic objects is banned in MRI rooms, the staff present there callously directed the patient’s family to remove her from the machine rather than doing it themselves.

Unaware of this fact, Ram Kumari’s family members brought in the metallic stretcher to shift her out and it got pulled into the machine. By the impact of the collision, Ram Kumari, who was still on the machine, got stuck into it and sustained injuries on her jaw and head. According to eyewitnesses, her face and head literally got glued to the machine, leading to fractures.

Eyewitnesses revealed that the two technicians who did the MRI, walked out of the room after the procedure, directing the patient’s husband to remove her from the machine. They did not even warn them about the use of stretcher or gave them any direction about safely removing her from the machine. None of the technicians were reportedly present in the room when the mishap occurred.

According to doctors attending on Ram Kumari, though no serious injuries were found on her head, her cheekbone had sustained a fracture. Her condition is reported to be serious.

Talking to TOI, Pratap Singh, director medical education (DME) said that three hospital staff including MRI consultant , Dr Anand Jaiswal and two technicians, Devesh Patel and Abdul Khalid have been suspended.

Dr Vivek Choudhary, medical superintendent of Dr BR Ambedkar Hospital, admitted before the media that the mishap was the result of the sheer negligence of the hospital staff. However, the MS appeared more concerned about the MRI machine rather than the fate of the injured patient as he kept on repeating about the loss to the hospital on account of the damage caused to the machine.

The machine is worth Rs 12 crore and we bought it after placing tenders seven times”, he said adding that the 3 Tesla MRI machine were procured after lot of efforts. He said these machines aren’t available easily.

Meanwhile, the state health minister, Amar Agarwal, has asked the health officials to take strict action against the staff and also the MRI consultant.