Rookie mistake

This is week 3 of my MR clinicals and today I made a rookie mistake. I had a patient who came in for a MR of his head and he was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt. So of course my first thought was that I didn't need to get him changed into scrubpants since there was no metal on his sweatpants. I did the routine screening with him but forgot to ask him if he had anything in his pockets. As we were putting him into the scanner the tech felt his car keys moving toward the magnet and grabbed them just as they exited his pocket and right before they made it to the side of the magnet. A scary moment for me and a lesson I will not soon forget. I will never make THAT mistake again.

Then the next patient I screened and had dress (for a T-spine) came out of the dressing room with his necklace on!! When the lead tech told him he would have to take it off he looked right at me and said, "I can't believe I forgot, even after you told me to take it off." So another lesson learned - look at the patient again carefully before they get on the table.