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This morning I was supposed to have an MRI of my hip @UPMC. I was very nervous as hospitalizations and deaths have been on the rise in Allegheny County, even as cases have leveled out at ~1-200 a day (which I guess we& #39;re not just supposed to accept as normal?)
When the patient before me came out of the MRI room, I saw that he was wearing a bandana over his mouth & nose instead of a mask, and as he walked through the waiting area he let it fall off.
So, when the MRI tech came to get me, I asked her to confirm that the patient before me had worn his mask properly for the duration of his test.
She said, "no, I& #39;ve been letting patients take them off because they are alone in the room"
She said, "no, I& #39;ve been letting patients take them off because they are alone in the room"
We know that respiratory droplets with this virus can hang in the air for hours. I told the tech this. She said "we ask people before they come in if they& #39;ve had any symptoms"
We know that people are the most contagious with this disease in the 3-4 days before they begin to experience symptoms. We also know that some people never experience any symptoms but can spread the disease.
So this morning, after waiting 4 WEEKS to be able to get my MRI, I was informed that I would need to lay down for an hour with my head in the EXACT SPOT that the stranger before me had - and that he& #39;d been maskless.
I was also told, as I tried to make the tech understand how hugely NOT OK this was, that this is what she had been told by hey supervisor. Another woman there told me "patients have a right to remove their mask during their test"
To be clear: @PAHealthDept & @HealthAllegheny have MANDATED that all persons wear a mask when in public. Patients do not have a "right" to remove their masks during an MRI, and @UPMC administrators do not have a "right" to decide that they can.
