Should I use my metal detector to detect a coin swallowed by a child?

[West Jersey Detecting]

A few weeks back I got an email from someone asking if I could scan her son. Apparently he had swallowed a dime, and they were not sure if it passed. Her doctor offered to give him an X-ray but she declined, not wanting to expose the boy to unnecessary rays. I told her that if he had cramps she should take him to the ER, but otherwise I would not worry.

Yesterday I got another email from her asking if I would mind "scanning" her son. She is willing to pay me to do it. (I doubt I would accept any payment). I don't mind doing it, if I don't detect anything and then later on he has complications due to a coin that he may have subsequently swallowed, I may open myself up to legal action.

What is your opinion?

 

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[BuckleBoy]

There is no danger to being "detected" LOL! How could you pass up the opportunity to find a coin In a PERSON. AWESOME!


Do it!

 

[Saturna]

Sure, it's not going to hurt anything to detect a person. Just make sure her son has no metal in his clothing to interfere.

 

[rockhound]

Any police station,court house or other government office you go into has a metal detector to ensure no weapons are getting into the building. You must remove all items from your pckets and declare any metal plates,screws or other metallic materials where broken bones were mended. They have no effect on any part of the body. A pinpointer might work better than a larger coil, depending on the sensitivity of the pinpointer. rockhound

 

[Bramblefind]

If you are worried about liability have them sign a "Hold Harmless" agreement of some sort. I didn't even try to google for an example to use in this circumstance Here is a basic quick draft I just made for some ideas. If you think you can use it feel free to alter it up:

We ______________ hereby agree to let _________________ employ a standard "metal detector" device to scan our son ________________ in order to ascertain if any metallic items can be internally located in his body. We understand that even if no metal is found during this scan, metal might still be present in the internal organs of _______________. We hereby hold ___________________ harmless from any injury which might occur to _____________________ as a result of the scan or as a result of metallic items indicated or not indicated by the scan.


Dated:


____________________________
signed

____________________________
signed

Have fun

 

[Chug And Red]

I say go for it!!!! WAS IT A MERC DIME IT WONT HURT!! and they will know if the child has passed it or not with out searching for it!!!! Chug

 

[Tom_in_CA]

The contract that bramble-find proposes, heavily insinuates that there is practically no reliability in this, don't hold your breath, don't consider the results indicative of anything at all, etc..... To the contrary, a coin in a human body is EASY. Even a cheapie detector can pick it up. At no point in the human body (unless you're talking an extremely obese person), would the coin be more than 3 or 4" away? That's a cinche for detectors. And no, metal detectors won't hurt going through human tissue. You don't even need to have someone sign a "hold harmless" clause/legal paper for this, any-more-so than having your neighbor sign an agreement allowing you to drive you car past the front of his house.

You can test the reliability of your ability to use a detector in this way, by having someone place a coin at various points on the backside of their body parts (like, held against their back, while you detect the front of their tummy, etc..). And try the coin placed at angles too, since there's no guarantee that the coin is flat in relation to the coil. As long as there's no metal on the kid (zippers, rivots on his jeans, etc...) it should be a cinche.

I'd do it.

 

[gollum]

Detecting will be the easy part.

What kind of a digging tool are you going to use to get it out?


AND REMEMBER TO FILL IN YOUR HOLES!

Best-Mike

 

[Bramblefind]

The contract that bramble-find proposes, heavily insinuates that there is practically no reliability in this, don't hold your breath, don't consider the results indicative of anything at all, etc..... To the contrary, a coin in a human body is EASY. Even a cheapie detector can pick it up. At no point in the human body (unless you're talking an extremely obese person), would the coin be more than 3 or 4" away? That's a cinche for detectors. And no, metal detectors won't hurt going through human tissue. You don't even need to have someone sign a "hold harmless" clause/legal paper for this, any-more-so than having your neighbor sign an agreement allowing you to drive you car past the front of his house.

You can test the reliability of your ability to use a detector in this way, by having someone place a coin at various points on the backside of their body parts (like, held against their back, while you detect the front of their tummy, etc..). And try the coin placed at angles too, since there's no guarantee that the coin is flat in relation to the coil. As long as there's no metal on the kid (zippers, rivots on his jeans, etc...) it should be a cinche.

I'd do it.

It's just covering himself. If the people are willing to sign it - it's good to have in place. I wouldn't care at all if it was family or a friend. But people I don't know at all - I might just have them sign something.

It's all individual choice and judgment though.

 

[TabWhisperer]

Take him to the airport and run him through the baggage scanner.

 

[BuckleBoy]

It's the "strip down the kid so there's no zippers or clothing in the way" that I'd worry about more!

 

[Bramblefind]

It's the "strip down the kid so there's no zippers or clothing in the way" that I'd worry about more!

I probably should add another line to cover that.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

It's the "strip down the kid so there's no zippers or clothing in the way" that I'd worry about more!

hmmm, if only it was their 21 year old daughter

 

[Iron Patch]

If you are worried about liability have them sign a "Hold Harmless" agreement of some sort. I didn't even try to google for an example to use in this circumstance Here is a basic quick draft I just made for some ideas. If you think you can use it feel free to alter it up:

We ______________ hereby agree to let _________________ employ a standard "metal detector" device to scan our son ________________ in order to ascertain if any metallic items can be internally located in his body. We understand that even if no metal is found during this scan, metal might still be present in the internal organs of _______________. We hereby hold ___________________ harmless from any injury which might occur to _____________________ as a result of the scan or as a result of metallic items indicated or not indicated by the scan.


Dated:


____________________________
signed

____________________________
signed

Have fun

Hey! Where's the part about finders keepers?

 

[deepskyal]

Be careful cleaning your find. . Don't want it to lose it's value.

Al

 

[Mark S.]

I did this once with an acquaintance who was drinking one night. He was playing some kind of bar game involving quarters and beer. He swallowed one. I got a loud sound off his gut. Of course his eyes opened wide when I grabbed my digging tool!

I do not see any problem at all with doing that. You are simply telling the person whether or not your detector is picking up a piece of metal. You are making no other claims. It is for them to decide any further action. Of course no doctor would act on anything unless they confirmed it themself with a proper medical test.

I also did it on a cow once.

 

[airborne1092]

Gives new meaning to digging a privy!

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

I also did it on a cow once.

I've heard of it with sheep before, but never on a cow!

 

[spartacus53]

Well if it is still lodged in him, my only suggestion is to sterilize your lesche before you start digging for it :icon_

 

[mlayers]

Sure you can do it with no problem. When I got my Garrett Pro Pointer I detcted my friend and found out where he still had a pices of scrap metal in his forehead from when a bomb blew up in front of him when he was over in Iraq. He was amaze with the pro pointer....Matt