Friendship overcomes MRI nerves

It took time, patience and a team effort to get Harrison Atkins to co-operate enough to lie still for an MRI scan of his head.

But the 2-year-old has made history for Pacific Radiology staff in Palmerston North, relaxing so completely during the noisy, claustrophobic procedure that he went to sleep in the middle of it.

Senior medical imaging technologist Dan Mudford said young children could not be expected to lie still for long enough, which could be half an hour or more.

‘‘It’s a scary process even adults find difficult.’’

Many people found they had claustrophobia once inside the machine, where the panic button became their best friend. A general anaesthetic was usually the only option for youngsters.

But that was something parents Alex and Mike did not want Harrison to go through either.

So Mudford and colleague Steve Mackintosh, who is in charge of the MRI unit in Palmerston North, came up with an alternative. His name was Cam, Mackintosh’s 10-year-old son.

Over several weeks, the two boys met up at the private radiology clinic, became buddies, and were allowed supervised exploration of the multimillion-dollar equipment.

Cam, who had been through the process himself, showed Harrison how to put on the headphones, have the helmet put on his head, and to lie down and be pushed through the mouth of the huge magnetic resonance imaging machine.

Alex was confident Harrison would love being allowed to play with the older boy, and they became great buddies.

She followed up the sessions at home, encouraging Harrison to practise lying still in a tunnel, and talked about wearing ‘‘the big helmet’’ like you would to ride a motorbike.

Even on the day of the scan, no-one was quite certain Harrison was ready.

But he had his mum in the room with him, he held his cuddly blanket and a toy, and after wriggling a little bit, he slept through most of the procedure.

‘‘The paediatric radiologist rang us on Monday, asking when we had started doing general anaesthetics,’’ Mackintosh said.

‘‘He was amazed we succeeded without it.’’

He said it was deeply satisfying to be able to achieve such a good outcome.

‘‘Typically, half our job is making sure the patient is comfortable, whether they are 21⁄2 or 99.

‘‘The last thing we wanted to do was give Harrison a traumatic experience.’’

WARWICK SMITH/ STUFF Harrison Atkins, 2, sitting on the MRI scanner at Pacific Radiology in Palmerston North, with Cam Mackintosh, 10, who helps Harrison to get acquainted with the equipment.