The MRI diagnostic facility in Dr Ram Manohar lohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMlIMS) remain affected on Saturday, a day after cop’s service pistol got stuck in the testing facility.
A large number of patients, who came from different parts of the state, had to return disappointed as the RMlIMS administration had decided to not operate the conked machine till the repair work is completed.
“The operation of MRI machine has been stopped till the time it is declared fit for use by company engineers. The process is likely to take some time. The patients are being sent to other government hospitals for MRI,” the RMlIMS administration said.
The engineers put in efforts to remove the pistol from the machine but without any success. The strong magnetic field of the machine has to be contained and only then the heavy iron gun could be removed from the machine, they said.
The radiology experts are of the view that the repair works in the machine would take more than two week time and would incur high expenditure.
According to the police, a cop’s service gun got stuck in an MRI machine in RMlIMS, when the cop, who was deployed in the security of state Cabinet minister Satyadev Pachauri, entered the MRI room following the minister. The cop was unaware of the safety protocol to be followed in such a place with strong magnetic field effect. As soon as the cop, Mukesh, stepped in to the magnetic field of the machine, his service gun hopped the holster and stuck to the MRI machine.
The experts believe that the strong magnet of MRI machine had attracted the iron-made pistol and hampered its operation. Moreover, the minister, who was advised to undergo MRI examination after he complained of dizziness, came out of the room in haste as soon as the gun jumped off and stuck to the machine.
While some eye witnesses to the incident said the cop was aware of the advisory written outside the MRI room and intentionally stepped into the room, others considered that he left other metal items in his possession outside the MRI room but he could not afford to hand over his service gun to anyone.
The patients are asked to remove all metal items like key, mobile phone, wrist watch, coin, belt, buttons, before their entry in the MRI room as part of the safety protocol.