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kaigouI know I've got med-folks on my flist, somewhere out there, and I've got a bizarre medical hypothetical for ya. Any other folks with reasonable (or failing that, amusing) ideas also welcome.
Let's say I like to wear a bracelet per wrist. Each one is relatively close-fitting (about as close as the average watch band, let's say), and closes by such an ingenious mechanism that it'd take Houdini (or me being awake enough to instruct) to get out of the thing -- which means it's not coming off easily, and it won't come off with bolt-cutters since the band is too tight to get the cutter between skin and metal. AND, here's the kicker, for some reason (just GO WITH ME ON THIS ONE, okay?) it's decorated not with your usual gemstones or cheap charms but with rare-earth magnets. Y'know, the ones that will attach themselves to the nearest metallic object and not come off for love or money.
AND, finally, let's assume I'm passed out, say, post car-accident but without indications that major surgery is potential: heart is okay, no sign of bleeding, no indication of internal bleeding, but possible fractures, perhaps, and looking like maybe some exhaustion and/or alcohol and/or strong knock to the head. Basically, whatever combination gets me "passed-out and unable to answer questions BUT not likely to be rushed into O.R. right away and not on death's door", okay?
Is there some kind of EMT secret weapon that would/could remove even an 1"-wide metal bracelet fitted so closely?
If the jewelry is not easily removable, would it just be left alone?
(Although I would guess if, say, arm is broken! then bracelet would definitely have to come off before bone could be set/wrapped, right?)
Would the inclusion of the magnets mess with hospital/ambulance stuff? Would they mess with it REALLY badly or just kind of or not really much at all -- okay, except for maybe having arm suddenly attach itself securely to the gurney's handles, whoops.
Yeah, I know, crazy-crazy, don't ask, but really there's a reason for my madness. Really!
Let's say I like to wear a bracelet per wrist. Each one is relatively close-fitting (about as close as the average watch band, let's say), and closes by such an ingenious mechanism that it'd take Houdini (or me being awake enough to instruct) to get out of the thing -- which means it's not coming off easily, and it won't come off with bolt-cutters since the band is too tight to get the cutter between skin and metal. AND, here's the kicker, for some reason (just GO WITH ME ON THIS ONE, okay?) it's decorated not with your usual gemstones or cheap charms but with rare-earth magnets. Y'know, the ones that will attach themselves to the nearest metallic object and not come off for love or money.
AND, finally, let's assume I'm passed out, say, post car-accident but without indications that major surgery is potential: heart is okay, no sign of bleeding, no indication of internal bleeding, but possible fractures, perhaps, and looking like maybe some exhaustion and/or alcohol and/or strong knock to the head. Basically, whatever combination gets me "passed-out and unable to answer questions BUT not likely to be rushed into O.R. right away and not on death's door", okay?
Is there some kind of EMT secret weapon that would/could remove even an 1"-wide metal bracelet fitted so closely?
If the jewelry is not easily removable, would it just be left alone?
(Although I would guess if, say, arm is broken! then bracelet would definitely have to come off before bone could be set/wrapped, right?)
Would the inclusion of the magnets mess with hospital/ambulance stuff? Would they mess with it REALLY badly or just kind of or not really much at all -- okay, except for maybe having arm suddenly attach itself securely to the gurney's handles, whoops.
Yeah, I know, crazy-crazy, don't ask, but really there's a reason for my madness. Really!
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Date: 6 Nov 2008 07:25 pm (UTC)Ring cutters would be more likely to eventually do the job. But much like rings, if there's no reason to remove them (swelling, needing to access the skin underneath) they'd generally be left in place. Unless the magnets were strong enough to begin playing havoc with electro-magnetic fields in machines, like disc drives, magnetic memory, MRIs.
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Date: 6 Nov 2008 07:40 pm (UTC)I do recall [censored] years ago working in a radio station on campus, and having to (okay, this should tell you how many years ago) clear the carts. Ahem. The single-tapes, roughly the size of an eight-track cassette, which held recorded advertisements and other short-length bits... it took several swipes over a large electromagnetic box, about the size of a really thick paperback book. That's always stayed in my head ever since, when it comes to "things recorded" plus "things magnetic". Heh.
Though, in contrast, I would think it'd take a substantially smaller (if still very powerful) magnet to clear an item like, say, the SIM card for a phone, such things are still relatively well protected. So for the most part I didn't think such tiny, if strong, little magnets would be enough to wipe everything around -- it was more like, would this interfere with items brought close to the person? I dunno, any kind of device placed on/near the person while diagnosing...
Mostly it's academic because (as I keep telling CP when he tries to poke holes in my ideas) the beauty of writing urban/fantasy is that you can always put your fingers in your ears and chant, lalalala magic clause! That part, I can fudge, but in terms of actual medical practice, I still want some kind of basis in reality -- although to be on the safe side, all hospital scenes I ever write will have "no cellphones allowed" although I've been in hospitals in the past few years that do not have this policy. Hmph.
And no points extra to you if you get that one, because you know exactly where it comes from. (Heh.)