It Could Suck The Chrome Off A Ball Hitch!

A hospital is facing a £20,000 bill to repair damage caused by a wheelchair which was flung across a room by powerful magnets in an MRI machine. It is thought a nurse had pushed the metal chair into the room to collect a patient despite warning signs not to enter. It was instantly picked up and sent crashing into the scanner - where a patient had been lying moments before. "The nurse was shouted at to get out but they still continued into the room and the wheelchair just shot across the room. It slammed into the scanner and was bent round into the part where the patient lies.

A supposedly ambulatory patient told a technologist that she was feeling rather tired and weak. She asked if she could sit down while the tech was entering data into the computer. So the tech let her sit in one of the console chairs. Since the woman was rather tired, the technologist pushed the patient into the room on the chair. Since this was an actively shielded magnet, she thought it would be OK. The patient got off the chair, sat on the table and gave the chair a little push with her feet. The chair rolled away and just kept right on rolling on a curved path to the magnet bore and flew right in. Fortunately, no one was hurt but it took almost a full day to ramp the magnet down, pull the chair out, ramp back up and check out the system. 

[ both stories via ]
[ MRI image below via ]