A specialist DVD player to keep young children still during an MRI scan
Can you help us improve patient care this summer? We’re seeking out superheroes to help save the day and help raise £20,000 to purchase a specialised MRI DVD player to comfort young patients.
For our younger patients, having an MRI can be noisy, scary, and stressful. It is obviously crucial they lie still, and often that’s just not realistic. While RUH Play Specialists can help prepare (and distract) children for MRI scans using Lego, for younger children often the only option is a general anaesthetic. This is often deeply worrying for parents, carers, and of course, the patient. Giving a child a general anaesthetic requires a large team of specialist staff, especially when it is an emergency. It should be avoided when at all possible.
Two years ago, Time is Precious funded a specialist DVD player in one of our three MRI scanners. It was a huge success! Now, children (and adults too) can watch their favourite movie, listen through headphones, and take their mind off the scanning process with much less stress.
Our donation aim for this season is to be able to offer patients as young as four-years-old a successful MRI without the need for a general anaesthetic. Your kind donations will help us achieve this goal and allow us to install a second DVD player. This will guarantee more MRI scans are successful, worry-free, and less time-consuming.
Of course, we can’t just buy any DVD player. It must be a highly specialised bit of kit, which is expensive. The DVD player must work in a strong magnetic field and not interfere with the electric signals produced by the MRI. We noticed in a trial with the first DVD player that a much higher percentage of children were able to concentrate on their movie and lie still, and seem to take their mind of the noisy machine. The DVD player is essential for improving young patient care.
