Gunner wrote:

MRI Disarms Police Officer


(Rochester-WABC, September 15,
2000) _ An off-duty cop lost his
side-arm this week after a magnetic
resonance imaging machine ripped it
from his hand, shooting off a round
at a clinic in Rochester.


The Sergent, who was visiting the
suburban clinic to undergo an MRI,
mentioned to the staff that he had his
handgun with him. Sgt. William Benwitz
was told it was all right to keep it during
the scan, but as soon as he entered the
room, the MRI's heavy duty magnet
yanked the .45 caliber gun out of his hand,
causing it to fire once. No one was hurt,
and the bullet lodged into a wall of the
clinic.


It took three hours to power down the
magnet and free the weapon. An MRI is
four times as powerful as magnets used to
lift cars in junkyards.

Quite amazing, as almost any hospital that has an MRI machine has had an
accident of some sort with it. It might only have been a pocket
screwdriver, keyring or ballpoint pen, but it usually gets the message
across. Also, the machines will not give good images if any metal of
any type is inside the magnet, as it distorts either the static or
dynamic magnetic fields (or both) inside.

I would suspect the gun is scrap, as it would have hit the magnet
with enormous force. I know of several MRI accidents which caused
serios injury or death. At Johnson&Johnson's Technicare unit, a
forklift strayed too close to an operating magnet and was yanked across
the room. A technician was killed, and the lift truck operator was
injured. At a hospital in St. Louis, a compressed gas bottle that
was SUPPOSED to be aluminum was thrown across the MRI room and nearly
killed several people. At another hospital, a floor buffer was picked
up and slammed against the machine.

Jon