Moderator EMEDPA Posted August 1, 2018 Moderator Share Posted August 1, 2018 https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/patient-too-large-for-mri-machine-sues-oregon-hospital-for-7m.html I was not involved with this case and do not know anyone involved. This story screams epidural abscess. Take home point: If a serious ddx is on your list that you can not exclude based on the workup you are able to do at your facility, you must transfer the pt to a facility where they can get the diagnostic workup they need. I recently transferred a pt too large to fit in our MRI for a similar workup, although in my case it ended up being negative. My patient was elderly and quite large and had sx worrisome for posterior circulation stroke. I was able to transfer the pt to another facility that had a large open mri. Interesting aside- some cities like mine have a large animal (up to elephant size) mri at the zoo that will accept human patients if accompanied by an ALS crew. We transferred a 750 lb pt to the zoo MRI a few years ago for an epidural abscess workup. how bad is it if you have to give your sign out for transfer to a zoo vet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jk5142 Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Thanks for the post! Did the pt/facility need to get special consent/release of liability in order to get the imaging? Did radiology in-house agree to interpret the films? We have gotten the occasional pt who is too large to fit, and/or too heavy for the table to support and unable to get CT/MRI/radiation therapy. This possibility of sending the pt to the zoo was brought up, but our staff here said it wasn't possible due to the liability associated with trying to image a human in a machine (ostensibly) designed for animals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted August 2, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted August 2, 2018 our radiologists read the study. they had an appropriate setting which was for a large gorilla or something. The paramedics stayed with the pt the whole time, so the zoo had no liability and charged for the study. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ERCat Posted September 5, 2018 Share Posted September 5, 2018 On 8/2/2018 at 1:18 AM, EMEDPA said: our radiologists read the study. they had an appropriate setting which was for a large gorilla or something. The paramedics stayed with the pt the whole time, so the zoo had no liability and charged for the study. This almost seems like a joke... Large gorilla setting? The zoo had no liability? Is it sad that I am laughing? In all seriousness I have heard of this situation a time or two. Thank God for zoos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmj11 Posted September 5, 2018 Share Posted September 5, 2018 Maybe the moral of the story is to always send them to the zoo if you are looking for zebras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boatswain2PA Posted October 4, 2018 Share Posted October 4, 2018 Ar what point do we, as a society in general, put the responsibility back on the individual? If you have to go to the damn ZOO because you are too fat to fit in any human scanner.... Everyone deserves to be treated with respect, but society should respectfully be able to say "You have committed suicide by allowing yourself to become this fat...." No wonder we are broke.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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