- Kaiser Permanente nurse Ainah Cervantes required surgery for lacerations caused by screws that penetrated her body
- The healthcare provider has now been fined $18,000 for the workplace accident
- An investigation into the incident at the Redwood City facility found that the company “failed to provide radiology services in a safe manner.”
A California nurse required surgery for “crush injuries” after a horrific accident left her pinned between an MRI machine and a bed.
Ainah Cervantes became trapped after the device’s powerful magnetic force pulled a hospital bed towards her.
The nurse was with a patient at the Kaiser Permanente facility in Redwood City when the horrific incident occurred in February.
The patient was uninjured, but Cervantes suffered deep lacerations that required surgery after two screws penetrated her body.
“I was pushed on the bed,” Cervantes told investigators with the California Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), KTVU reports.
California nurse Ainah Cervantes was trapped between an MRI machine and a hospital bed after a horrific accident
The Kaiser Permanente nurse needed surgery for cuts she suffered when screws impaled her body
“Basically I walked backwards. If I didn’t run, the bed underneath would crush me,” she said.
An investigation was not conducted until several months after the accident and concluded that the medical facility “failed to provide radiology services in a safe manner.”
The healthcare provider now faces an $18,000 fine for the workplace violation.
The report found that there were several violations of protocol when using the device, a diagnostic device that scans the body using magnetic fields and radio waves.
According to investigators, there were no MRI personnel in the room at the time of the incident and the security alarm did not sound.
They also said the door to the room was left open and the patient was not examined.
Employees did not have adequate safety training and the hospital failed to manually test its door alarm, a violation of Kaiser Permanent MRI safety rules, the report said.
The healthcare provider has now been fined $18,000 for the workplace accident
The incident occurred in February at the facility in Redwood City, California
“The many safety deficiencies … created a culture of unsafe practices,” investigators said.
A typical MRI machine is about 300 times stronger than a refrigerator magnet.
Videos on the Internet show how you can easily vacuum metal objects. A clip shows a stapler “disintegrating” due to its sheer force.
According to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the devices emit a strong magnetic field that forces protons in the body to align with that field.
When radio waves are pulsed through the patient, the protons are excited and work against the attractive force of the magnetic field to create the image.
Sheila Gilson, senior vice president of Kaiser Permanente San Mateo, told KTVU that teams responded quickly and those involved “immediately received the care and support they needed.”
“It was rare, but we are not satisfied until we understand why an accident occurs and take steps to prevent it from happening again,” Gilson added.
However, the outlet reports that the incident was not the first of its kind. Photos from a 2015 incident in which no one was injured show a cart full of medical equipment stuck to an MRI scanner.
Their statement continued: “As an organization committed to continuous learning improvement, Kaiser Permanente fully investigated the incident and used our findings to make specific operational changes to enhance safety.”