Pirate-Themed CT Scanner Makes Scanning Less Scary for Children at NY Hospital

Getting children to undergo a CT scan may seem a ‘horrible and scary chore’ but a New York children’s hospital may have found a perfect solution after purchasing a pirate themed CT scanner. The New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital installed the scanner early this month after getting it from GE, who had presented the staff with two theme options – fishes or pirates.

The hospital's chief of pediatric radiology, Dr Carrie Ruzal-Shapiro said that they decided to opt for pirates as they were ‘cute’. The walls of the scanner room are decorated with swash-buckling pirate animals while children lie on a mock plank which then slides into the scanner, shaped as a ship’s wheel.

Dr Ruzal-Shapiro said that so far the experience has been positive with children eager to get over the scan. “It allows children to imagine all sorts of things. So it doesn't seem like a horrible scary chore. The teens roll their eyes at the cat with the eye-patch and the hippo mermaid. But they like it as much as the kids”, Dr Ruzal-Shapiro said.

Source-Medindia