X-ray her? A metal detector’s far better!
THEY are more commonly favoured by treasure hunters, combing the countryside for a valuable find.
But a new role has been found for metal detectors in Scottish hospitals – as an alternative to X-rays.
Accident and emergency departments in Lanarkshire are being equipped with metal detectors to help locate objects swallowed by children.
Previously, dozens of toddlers a year had to be sent for costly and potentially harmful X-rays to find items such as coins and paperclips in their stomachs.
But a junior doctor at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, came up with an alternative which has proved popular with parents and the health board. Dr Nicola Moultrie’s Hunting For Swallowed Treasure project will save the hospital thousands of pounds a year and others in the area are following suit.
Each X-ray costs around £55, with many patients requiring two or three at a time, whereas a hand-held metal detector costs only £390 and runs on long-life batteries.
Dr Moultrie said: ‘The metal detectors make life so much easier for everyone involved and are far more cost-effective.
‘Last year, 22 children came into A&E at this hospital after swallowing a small metal object, mostly coins.
‘Using the metal detector means you don’t have to send them for X-rays, which are costly and expose the child to radiation.’
She added: ‘Children often struggle to stay still enough for an X-ray, but with the hand-held metal detector it doesn’t matter if they wriggle, and it is also less scary for them as they can sit on their parent’s knee.’
‘The metal detector is sensitive and beeps and flashes when it locates the foreign object, showing the doctor quickly how far down it has gone.
‘Once it has passed from the gullet to the stomach we are normally able to reassure the parent that it will be fine and they can go home. The item will pass naturally out of the body.
Dr Moultrie said the device had helped her team locate coins, paperclips, bolts and screws. But she added: ‘If a parent suspects their child has swallowed a button battery we will still send them for an X-ray.’
Dr Fiona Hunter, the emergency medicine consultant who supervised the project, said: ‘As a mother this is what I would want for my child.
‘Children are unpredictable and can swallow things but this is a quick and painless way to get answers and reduce worry. It also reduces waiting times as there are fewer patients being sent for X-rays.
‘As they are so quick to use, we only needed to invest in one metal detector, so it has been a real cost-saver.’
Alexander Graham Bell, the Scot who invented the telephone, developed an early metal detector in 1881 to find a bullet lodged in the chest of US President James Garfield.
It worked but was confused by the metal springs in the bed on which President Garfield was lying.
‘This is what I would want for my child’