MRI injuries: Because children use it too frequently

Darla Stuart's story:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported in 2011 that MRI accidents in the US have risen over 500% from 2000 to 2009. The overwhelming majority of reported injuries fell into one of three categories: burns, projectiles and hearing damage.  However, these injuries are not accidents: they are directly related to the failure to assure proper safety standards.

 In 2008, our, then, fifteen year old daughter walked into a children's hospital to have an MRI.  More than a half-hour behind schedule the technician rushed her through the screening as it was late, the last appointment of the day.  Precautions like a two way audio system, safe and inspected equipment and a panic button, which were advertised on the hospital’s website, were non-existent.  Thirty minutes later our daughter crawled out of the MRI machine of her own accord: alone, traumatized and injured. 

The video goggles that were offered by the hospital to help her relax during the procedure were faulty.  They had been recently returned to service after being repaired by the hospital’s own Biomedical Department.  A plastic casing, part of the video goggle manufacturer’s original design, meant to cover the metallic webbing of the video goggles, had been removed and not replaced during the most recent repair.  So, at the moment the MRI started, a piece of tungsten metal from the video goggles, acting like a magnetized projectile,  soldered to our daughter’s eyelid and burned like an ember during three MRI cycles while she laid in there asking, begging, crying for help:  help that never came.  The attending technician had turned the patient microphone down because the noise of the MRI was disturbing to other radiology staff.   

The hospital knew within hours that: the goggles had been improperly repaired by their biomedical department; the microphone had been turned down too low by their staff to hear our daughter’s cries; and the panic button, meant to be an additional safety procedure, was not installed.  They knew that her injuries were not a result of an accident, but caused by their systemic failure to assure proper safety standards. Ironically, though, they blamed her for their negligence and treated her with cold indifference. 

Our daughter’s injury was much deeper than the multiple lacerations on her eyelid, her innocence was lost and her trust of others was shattered.  As the wounds on her eyelid healed and scarred, the wounds in her soul festered.  She found herself waiting for the next bad thing to happen, preparing herself for what she would do if she had to save herself, living in fear every day.  Ultimately, she felt like the fear she lived with every day was too much and she considered suicide.  She has received therapy to help overcome her post traumatic stress reaction, and will likely never be free of the heightened anxiety she experiences as a direct result of this life-changing incident.

On May 16, 2012, four plus years after our daughter’s injury, a jury in Adams County, Colorado found the hospital guilty of medical negligence.  That verdict not only publicly confirmed to our daughter that she was indeed a victim of their negligence, but it gave us the freedom to speak about that negligence as substantiated through a public record. At trial it was admitted into evidence via a staff member’s testimony that the panic button that was to have been mandatorily placed into service was often removed because children use it too frequently.  Further it was stated that the safety manual, which was allegedly written after our daughter’s incident to retrain staff on MRI safety, hadn’t been instituted and staff weren’t even aware that it existed.  

Our daughter’s injury could and should have been avoided.  Her injuries were not caused by an accident or a device malfunction; they were directly caused by the failure to assure and implement common and highly recommended safety standards. Safety standards that remain, as of today, inconsistently applied to children who use that hospital's MRI equipment.

Industry leaders agree that there should be safety standards that provide regulated oversight for MRI safety.  Colorado does not regulate or inspect MRI equipment or associated items used in MRI’s.  Additionally, Colorado doesn’t require that MRI technicians be licensed. Essentially, each facility that offers an MRI service is allowed to independently regulate how they oversee their equipment and determine staff credentials.  Tragically in our experience that independent oversight was absent.

Statistics indicate that with a 500% increase in reported accidents it is highly probable that another child will be a victim of this type of negligence. We can’t turn back time and change what happened to our daughter. 

Darla's Advice:  We can insist regulations are created and government oversight provided. We can warn parents to do what this hospital as of May 16 refused to do:  require staff perform an parent observed inspection of the MRI and associated equipment; assure that the two-way audio system is tested  with their child; make sure there is a panic button is working and tested.  We can speak publicly about our experience, and perhaps with the support of others we can make a stand and insist that no other child be a victim of this type of avoidable negligence.

Read another kind of MRI error story, and see Darla's blog.  Thanks to Darla for sharing her daughter's story.

A lot of others worse off than him: Post traumatic stress disorder among veterans

Army psychiatrist Nidal Hassan apparently committed a mass shooting at an Army base in Texas. If it turns out that Major Hassan did in fact break partly under the stress of the job and impending deployment, many veterans would not be surprised.

"If this guy can go over the edge, imagine what it is like for the actual combat troops who have been through four or five deployments," said Bryan Hannah, 22, a disabled Iraq war veteran from San Marcos, Texas, who was stationed at Fort Hood until he was discharged a year ago because of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other injuries.

He added, "There are a lot of others who are worse off than him."

Advice: Bring our soldiers home before more horrors like this occur.

Read a PTSD story with a happier ending. Thanks to the writers of the New York Times for this story, published Nov. 8, 2009.

A pinstriped evangelist: V.A. Secretary Shinseki's advocacy for veterans

The New York Times wrote today that Eric "Shinseki has been criss-crossing the country as Pres. Obama's pinstriped evangelist for veterans' care, raising concerns about a coming tide of post-traumatic stress cases, traumatic brain juries and other physical and psychological scars of battle."

He says, "What's natural for me is trying to tell the story that soldiers need told. It's not my story, it's their story." Nonetheless, his own story of losing a part of his foot in combat in Vietnam is instructive. He says, "All of us who went through combat, we were carrying a little baggage from the experience, the stress."

A former general, Shinseki won notoriety by speaking truth to power, warning Pres. Bush of a shortage of American troops in Iraq. Now continuing to state the truth as he sees it, he has requested what would be the largest single-year increase in the budget of the Department of Veterans Affairs in 30 years.

Advice: Share this story with a vet, and remind them that help may be available if they want it.

Read a story about our veterans. Thanks to James Dao and Thom Shanker for the source story.

I freak out when he has a runny nose: PTSD in NICU preemies' parents

Kim Roscoe's son Jaxon was born three months early, weighing only two and a half pounds. For nine days he did exceedingly well in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). Then, on Day 10 he went into respiratory and kidney failure, and his body had swollen beyond recognition. "He was hooked up to ventilators, his skin was turning black, the alarms kept dinging over and over," Kim recalls.

Jaxon is 16 months old now, home with his family. In the NICU for 186 days, he survived several near-death episodes.

During the six-month ordeal, his mother had constant nightmares. She became angry at the world, and so jumpy that she once thought that a supermarket scanner was one of Jaxon's monitors going off.

About three months after Jaxon's birth, she asked to see a psychiatrist. She received a diagnosis of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Doctors are increasingly recognizing PTSD among parents of premature infants in prolonged intensive care, according to a recent study in the journal Psychosomatics.

"The NICU was very much like a war zone, with the alarms, the noises, and death and sickness," Kim said. "You don't know who's going to die and who will go home healthy."

Experts say parents of NICU infants experience multiple traumas: the shockingly early birth itself, traumatic medical procedures and life-threatening events, and hearing very bad news that can keep coming.

Kim says that now she's coping with great anxiety about Jaxon, even now: "I still freak out if he has a runny nose. And when he gets a fever, I'm back in the NICU."

Advice to stressed parents of a NICU preemie: Keep in mind that there are very happy endings. My very healthy son just entered college, 19 years after his three-week stay in a NICU. Contact the March of Dimes NICU Family Support program, which offers psychological support to parents in 74 hospitals nationwide.

Read another NICU story.

Thanks to Laurie Tarkan for the source article in the New York Times of August 25.

Silicone Breast Implants: Platinum Suzy's story

I worked for a national real estate company as a District Manager for nearly 19 years. I started with them in Houston, was transferred to Richmond, VA, then to Orlando and eventually to Nashville, where I have lived for the past nine years. In December of 2004, I was informed that all of my properties were going to be sold and that I would be laid off effective 5/1/05. This was fine. I was building a house and very busy with my son and my elderly parents, so the timing was very good for me personally. I had planned to take off the remainder of 2005 and return to work 1/1/06. I was turning 50 in November and my present to myself was breast implant surgery. I contacted a local teaching hospital and was told that they were having a clinical trial for silicone implants. When asked if they were safe, I was told that they had used them for 30 years and had never had any problems. I signed up, paid the $6,000 and had the surgery on 11/9/05.

Almost immediately I began to have unusual health symptoms. These included: neck, back and left shoulder pain, ringing in ears, dizziness, problems with depth perception, blurred vision, achy joints, fatigue, heart palpitations, memory problems, insomnia, tingling/numb hands and feet, twitching muscles, difficulty swallowing, and a metallic taste in my mouth. Prior to this, I had experienced only one of these symptoms - back pain resulting from a volleyball injury.

I spent all of 2006 getting sicker and sicker and more desperate to find out what was happening to me. Every day I would wake up with something new terribly wrong. By July I was terrified that I was going to die. I spent all my time in bed or in doctors' offices. At one point, I called my daughter and asked her to take my 12-year old son if something happened to me. I had never been ill like this before and never had to consult a specialist for any of these symptoms. The pain in my neck was so severe that I had cervical fusion performed on 8/2/06. Every doctor I was seeing and every physical therapist advised against this surgery after reviewing the results of the MRI's, but I felt this was the only option I had. Unfortunately, they were right. This surgery did not alleviate any of the symptoms I was having.

Sometime in September, my breasts began to ache and became hard. I visited my primary care doctor and my OB-GYN of eight years and they confirmed that I had developed contracture of the silicone implants. They were removed on 9/29/06. I never considered the problems to be connected to the silicone implants because I had saline implant surgery in November, 1995. I had no problems with these-no contracture, but I thought I needed to have the saline implants changed out because there was some rippling on the sides of my breasts. (I am on the thin side and the edge of the implant could be felt). Within a few weeks of the explant surgery, many symptoms were gone. By six months, all symptoms were gone with the exception of severe neck and thoracic back pain (which I still have every day and continue to do physical therapy for) and cognitive/memory issues that my doctor believes is due to the trauma of being so ill during the time I had the silicone implants. (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the diagnosis.)

Two doctors at the same medical facility have told me that I had a reaction to the chemicals in the implants. Although I do not fully understand the process that made me sick, I believe that my symptoms were caused by nerve inflammation due to exposure to the chemicals in the implants. I was tested for platinum and it was found in three different oxidation levels-0, +2 and +4 in my urine. I have asked INAMED for a list of the other chemicals, but they did not respond to my certified letter.

I have spent about $30,000 for the privilege of participating in the silicone research trial, the explantation, MRI's, and over 100 office visits to diagnose and treat my health problems. I am also uninsurable as a result of the treatments I have received.

However, the good news is that the vast majority of women get better once the implants are removed.

Advice to women thinking of having breast implants: Be sure to do your research first.

Read another of our breast implant stories.

Now the West Point grad leads a different fight: Iraq veterans' health care

After his commission from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2000 and basic training, Marc Giammatteo was deployed to Iraq in April 2003. In nine months in Iraq, Marc led 100 combat missions before he was severely injured by a rocket-propelled grenade during a January 2004 ambush. The grenade penetrated his vehicle, tore off the outside half of his right leg from knee to ankle and caused multiple shrapnel wounds to his body.

Over two years he had more than 20 surgeries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C. Surgeons saved his permanently damaged leg. While recovering from his wounds he became an unofficial patient advocate, testified to the Committee of Veterans' Affairs and consulted with the secretary of the Veterans Administration, the secretary and deputy secretary of Defense, and two chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on behalf of wounded service members from operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

Earlier this year, President Bush named him to his Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors. Under his leadership, the Commission recommends creating comprehensive recovery plans, restructuring the disability and compensation system, aggressively preventing and treating post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injury, strengthening support for families, rapidly taking patient information from the Department of Defense to the Veterans Administration and recruiting and retaining first-rate professionals for the Veterans Administration.

Advice to injured veterans: Become strong advocates for yourself and your fellow veterans, like Marc.


Read another Iraq story, or read more from the source article by Scott Whipple in New Britain [CT] Herald.

We decided we were not going to stop fighting: A veteran’s suicide

Lance Corporal Jeffrey Lucey served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, and returned home a changed person, according to his family. He had nightmares, insomnia, and deep depression, and began drinking heavily.

He told his sister he had picked out a rope to hang himself with. His family persuaded him to seek care through the Veterans Administration, where he admitted himself on May 28, 2004. He was placed in a locked psychiatric ward, but was released three days later. Two days later, he totaled the family’s car in what the family believes was a suicide attempt. A few days after that, his family persuaded him to return to seek treatment. He did so on June 5, but he was denied treatment, with no psychiatrist available, his family said. On June 22, he hanged himself in the basement of his family’s home in Belchertown, Massachusetts.

Now "the Lucey family has been an inspiration, a one-family advocacy group that has tried to bring a lot of visibility to suicide and to mental health issues for veterans," said Paul Riechkhoff, the executive director of Veterans of America. Veterans of America estimates that 117 Iraqi war veterans have killed themselves.

Jeffrey’s family has retained attorney Cristobal Bonifaz to file a lawsuit against the government in federal court in Springfield, Massachusetts. The attorney said the VA’s failure to recognize Jeffrey’s suicidal tendency amounted to negligence and medical malpractice by an overstressed, understaffed system.

Advice: Refer Iraq war veterans to Veterans of America.

You can read more in Charles Sennott’s story in the Boston Globe of July 27.

Fortunately for me, he didn’t listen: Missed diagnosis

It took Madison, North Carolina resident Peter Griffin nearly 30 years to receive the medals he earned in Vietnam and just as long to acknowledge something he brought back with him from the war - post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“I was 17 when I joined and only 18 when I shipped out to Vietnam,” he said. “Combat is difficult enough for hardened veterans, but so many of us in that war were still just teenagers.”

Peter served with the 101st Airborne Division and the 82nd Airborne Division. He earned the Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze battle stars, the Silver Star Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation with oak leaf cluster and the Valorous Unit Citation.

Later, as a civilian policeman, he was injured in a fall from a roof while chasing a suspect. At a Veterans Affairs hospital for a checkup, he discussed with doctors the other symptoms he was experiencing.

He sought out a Department Service Officer (DSO), James Ward, while trying to get the Silver Star he earned during a battle in Vietnam. When Ward asked him to describe the incident in which he earned the medal, Peter became agitated and began having flashbacks. The DSO recognized his symptoms and encouraged the veteran to let him file a claim. “I told him I didn’t want him to do it because I didn’t want to be labeled with another disability,” Peter said. “Fortunately for me, he didn’t listen.”

A call from a VA hospital and a series of tests from doctors and psychologists confirmed the DSO’s suspicions and set Peter on a course of treatment to conquer the demons he had long lived with.

PTSD is the result of a psychologically distressing event that produces fear, terror and helplessness in the victim, representing a threat to the victim’s life or a loved one’s life. It shows itself in vivid and troubling flashbacks, emotional numbness, hyper-vigilance, poor sleep habits, poor concentration, and exaggerated irritability. Those symptoms are often accompanied by depression, anxiety, survivor guilt, suicidal urges, nervousness, drug or alcohol abuse, aggressive behavior and changes in cognitive functions.

Peter wrote his story in a book in the hope that “it will be a help to others out there suffering through the same hell I was going through.”

Thanks for your courage then and now, Peter.

Advice to veterans: Tell your story to a friendly advocate who’ll insist on helping you even though you’re just fine, thank you.

Read another story of an undetected condition, or read more of Peter Griffin's story in his book, “When you Hear the Bugle Call” (I don't get any money if you buy it), or in Steve Lawson’s article in the Reidsville Review.