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Medical equipment lost after collision
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Friday, November 21, 2008 11:57 PM EST
SAGINAW COUNTY - A $4.5 million piece of medical equipment owned by Alliance-HNI Health Care Services of Owosso was destroyed in a truck collision Monday.
A pickup truck lost control on icy I-75 and collided with a semi-truck carrying the machine near the Dixie Road exit, Michigan State Police Trooper Rick Jones said.
“The semi-truck driver could have hit the pickup that spun out in front of him, but he avoided them,” Jones said. “He still clipped them a little, but there was a ravine there and the semi turned over on its side.”
Jones said when he arrived on scene, the device was emitting white smoke and then erupted in flames.
The driver of the semi-truck sustained a broken arm while the driver in the pickup and a passenger had only minor injuries.
Alliance-HNI, 525 S. Gould St., is Michigan's oldest provider of mobile diagnostic imaging services and works with more than 40 hospitals.
An Alliance representative said the machine, used to identify cancer, was known as a positron emission tomography and computer tomography unit (PET/CT). It was the first lost in a vehicle collision in the company's 22-year history. The representative also said the PET/CT unit was one of only a few others in Alliance's care and was insured.
The truck hauling the PET/CT unit was making a weekly trip to West Branch Regional Medical Center in West Branch.
“We've never had a problem like this before,” West Branch Communications Director Sally Ann Whitener said. “It really is a fluke.”
West Branch schedules eight or nine patients every Tuesday to receive a scan, Whitener said. When the last scan is finished, the PET/CT unit is shipped to another hospital.
“In order to get a permanent unit, you have to apply to the state, but it's pretty tough to get one,” Whitener said. “A lot of hospitals around the state lease these mobile units. It'll be a couple years out before we have the volume needed to get a lease.”
Imaging Director at West Branch Tom Oesch said he didn't know of any PET/CT scanners with permanent locations in Mid-Michigan.
“Most hospitals get their scanners from places like Alliance,” Oesch said. “(Alliance) brings technicians along to administer the scans but they drive separately.”
Whitener expects no change in schedule. She said an Alliance representative told her to expect another unit to be transported Monday night.
- Contact Nathan Bruttell at 725-5136 extension 231 or nbruttellarguspress@gmail.com. Post comments about this story online at www.argus-press.com.
a bystander wrote on Nov 23, 2008 8:32 AM: