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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Years ago where I work a resident decided to be helpful and move a patient into the room with the MRI.

    Of course, the patient was supposed to be transferred off the ferrous metal gurney before coming into the room. The resident didn’t know that.

    The MRI pulled the gurney into the room and it slammed into the scanner. Luckily it didn’t actually flip up and crush the patient.

    They told the patient to stay where he was and they loaded the gurney down with a bunch of full five gallon water bottles. Once they had enough weight on it, they transferred the patient off the gurney. A bunch of guys pulled the gurney out of the room, amazingly without any damage to the scanner.


  • MRIs

    Far too many movies and TV shows use the magnet to cover for their lazy writing by treating it like something that can be turned on and off like a light.

    The magnet in an MRI is one of the coolest things in medicine, and writers get it wrong all the time. In the vast majority of cases, it’s always on.

    In simple terms, an electromagnet works by running a current in a circle and creating a magnetic field. In an MRI, the current is flowing in what is essentially a closed loop of wire. However, in this case the wire is cooled with liquid helium so it becomes a superconductor.

    They induce a current in the wire which creates the magnetic field (“ramp up” the magnet). Because it is superconducting, the current doesn’t stop. Once it’s ramped up, it no longer requires any external power. As long as the current is flowing the magnetic field remains.

    There are only two ways to “turn off” the magnet.

    One way is to “ramp down”. Essentially the opposite process that is used to get it running in the first place. That’s what they do if they need to stop it for service.

    The other way is to quench the magnet. You hit the emergency stop and vent off the liquid helium. Without the helium, the wire warms and resists the current and the flow stops.

    Quenching a magnet is a magnificently dramatic process. Someone hits the panic button, and there is a loud roar as the helium escapes. Clouds of condensation form around the exterior of the building as the cold gas escapes. In the event some construction crew screwed up and accidentally sealed the vents, there could be an explosion from the rapidly expanding gas.

    If writers want to use an MRI as a plot device, have an accident and require someone to quench the magnet to save a life. You’d have the immediate drama from the accident and the quench, and then you’d have the long term drama of the hospital trying to figure out where the money to fix the MRI would come from.

    https://youtu.be/9SOUJP5dFEg


  • This is what I tell my co-workers:

    Don’t come to me with a question and ask for the answer. Come to me with the answer that you came up with and ask me why it doesn’t work.

    In other words, at least try to be the solution. You’re more likely to get help from those who can help you.

    Start writing the documentation. Fill in everything you know. There might be people you help who don’t know as much as you.

    Post about it, and give others the opportunity to correct your documentation.

    Open the source code and see if you can start to work out the API. It’s all in there. That’s where the people who are writing it are documenting it.

    If you put the effort in, then you’ve joined the team, even if no one invited you. Once you’re on the team, the people writing the code will see you as a contributor and they’ll be more willing to put the time in to help you.