• palal@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Ahh, makes sense. That’s so cool! Do you know what kind of priority a hospital would have if they were to ration electricity? Would an MRI machine be high on that list?

    • becausechemistry@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      No idea, but if it were up to me I’d spend that rationed power on ventilators and such keeping patients alive. Losing cryogens stinks, but you can top them off without any power as long as you have stock or deliveries. And I’d rather a magnet quench than have to explain to a dead person’s family that their loved one’s life was less valuable than some helium and a chunk of ceramic.

      • palal@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Weren’t they still doing surgeries at al-Shifa up until the power went out? I’d imagine that an MRI might be useful for diagnosing issues prior to surgery…

        • becausechemistry@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Beats me. I’m just a chemist who managed my facility’s NMR magnets (built like MRIs but with different electronics for chemical analysis) for a few years. We had to pull some stunts to keep those magnets alive sometimes, but it was always a matter of how soon, not if, a shipment of cryogens would arrive. Can’t imagine trying to keep MRIs from quenching in a war zone.