The look on kids’ faces when he told their upset parents they’d most likely need to be sedated for an MRI wasn’t lost on Dr. Michael Fox.
He says he did what he could to prepare both parents and their child, but knew even the most open MRIs caused anxiety for kids. So when he retired from private practice, he jumped at his friends’ offer of becoming a partner in a state-of-the-art MRI machine that allows the child to sit on their parent’s lap and watch a movie on a 42-inch plasma screen while the test is being done.
It took six months, millions of dollars and 15 semi trucks to bring the technology to Chicago. “We believe so strongly that there was nothing better to offer, especially to children,” Fox says.
When Upright MRI of Deerfield started offering the new technology, pediatricians were apprehensive about changing. Fox says he promised them, if the pictures didn’t work, the patient wouldn’t be charged. The pictures worked and doctors were convinced.
Sheldon Kreitman, of Highland Park, is one of those convinced about the technology. Although a doctor himself, his first encounter with the Upright MRI came when his daughter was pushed off a ledge at school. There wasn’t a broken bone, but he wanted to make sure she had no soft tissue damage in her ankle.
During the test, she sat in his lap and almost fell asleep watching a movie, he says. When she needed another MRI in May for a twisted knee, he requested the doctor send her to Upright MRI.
The quieter, more open MRI is attracting patients from all over Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana and Michigan as a more kid-friendly alternative, Fox says. The cost to the patient is exactly the same, Fox says.
“If you love your child as I do mine and they need an MRI, there is no other alternative,” Fox says.
The Upright MRI is located at 457 Lake Cook Road, Deerfield. For information, call (847) 291-9321.