Woman Left in CT Scanner for Hours After Clinic Closes

Health Care providers. We trust them with our lives, literally. And apparently to some of them, we are so meaningless that we can be forgotten about while still inside their office, inside a diagnostic machine.

That is what happened to Elvira Tellez of Tucson, Ariz. last week.

According to the Tucson, Arizona AP, the 67 year old Tellez had been diagnosed with bone cancer and sent to the Arizona Oncology Associates Clinic for tests to see if her cancer had spread. A technician placed her in the CT scanner about 4pm, dimmed the lights so Tellez could relax and told her not to move during the procedure, that would last about 25 minutes.

At some point, Tellez felt like way to much time had elapsed, far more than the 25 minutes the technician had said it would take. Without a watch on and unable to see a clock in the dimmed room, Tellez began calling out, then screaming for help. No one heard her cries, no one came to help, because no one was in the room, no one was in the building. Everyone in the medical office had went home for the day, even the technician that had placed Tellez in the CT scanner.

Tellez was finally able to free herself by wiggling out from under the heavy blanket that was on her and then crawling out of the scanner. Once out of the scanner, alone, panicked and in the dark, Tellez phoned her son, who instructed her to call 911.When the sheriff's deputies arrived at the oncology office, they had her unlock the office door and let them in. Five hours had elapsed from the time Tellez was placed in the CT scanner until the deputies arrived. The deputies contact the oncology office manager, who was not aware of the situation.

The technician that originally put Tellez into the CT scanner has apologized, but she is still awaiting some type of explanation from the medical office.

Elvira Tellez says that she has trouble sleeping since the incident. Understandably so.

She has been diagnosed with cancer, she was forgotten about inside a diagnostic machine at her health care providers office, and no explanation has been forthcoming.