An overweight woman in the United States has been advised to undergo her MRI scan at the zoo.
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heavy duty: MRI machines can't handle the pressure of overweight patients |
An overweight woman in the United States has been advised to undergo her MRI scan at the zoo.
Carolyn Ragan, who has a tumour on spine, needed to get an MRI scan in her home state of Kansas.
But at five feet tall, and 125 kg in weight, Ragan was told none of the hospital's MRI machines could hold her. An assistant began searching for somewhere that could accommodate her, eventually suggesting the Kansas City Zoo.
"I thought, I know I'm big, but I'm not as big as an elephant," she said. "And my husband got mad."
Most MRI machines have two problems with overweight patients firstly that they can't handle the pressure and secondly that the tubes aren't big enough.
Ragan eventually found an open MRI machine that could hold her, but said her search was frustrating and embarrassing.
