MRI scans are strong diagnostics with high-definition images of what lies inside a body. Strong magnetic fields require precaution, as brought out by an instance where a young woman suffered very serious injuries due to an oversight in a metallic core within a silicone sex toy that she happened to have before the MRI scan. This makes a stark reminder about the potentially deadly consequences of missing metal objects when such procedures are being performed. In April 2023, a 23-year-old woman went into an MRI with a silicone plug containing a metal core that was not known.

She thought that the item is made entirely out of silicone according to the advertising. However, the strong magnetic field of the MRI machine interacted with the hidden metal, dragging the object through her body and causing excruciating pain. According to reports from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the scene was harrowing, with the woman screaming in agony and requiring immediate hospitalization. Despite pre-scan screenings, which are routine prior to a scan, the patient did not inform the facility that the object existed because he presumed it was purely non-metallic. This caused serious injuries that led to the patient's law suit against the manufacturer for deceitful misrepresentations of material content.

MRI machines employ magnets between 0.5 to 3 Tesla (T). This is thousands of times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. The tremendous force causes ferromagnetic materials, like iron and nickel, to be magnetized quickly and become strongly attracted toward the magnet. Objects as small as hairpins or paper clips will accelerate at 40 miles per hour inside the magnetic field.

The force can lead to catastrophic injuries in items lodged within the body, such as metallic implants or foreign objects. Metallic cores within devices, like pacemakers or intrauterine devices, must be disclosed to radiologists to prevent such complications.

How Metal Objects Interact with MRI Fields?

On these claims, Dr. Adam Taylor, a specialist in human anatomy, weighed his words in a international health website and added that the distance away and mass of this object would increase its velocity towards that of sound, "The acceleration would be phenomenal, but with a metallic core, it can't go anywhere near supersonic speeds. As for the size, the magnetic acceleration to the internal soft tissues would ensure that there could be severe intracranial trauma."

The injuries inflicted in this case likely involved damage to major blood vessels, nerves, or organs, highlighting the devastating impact of even minor oversight during an MRI scan.

This is not an isolated case. There are documented cases of metallic objects causing serious damage during MRI scans with a 65-year-old man with schizophrenia swallowed metal objects, including sockets and a hinge pin. The powerful magnetic field during an MRI scan caused the objects to rupture his stomach, resulting in serious injuries.

A toddler who ingested 11 small magnets perforated his bowel while undergoing a scan, making his case unique. In another deadly but extremely rare incident, there have been people who hide a firearm on themselves during MRI procedures. Magnetic attraction can trigger a discharge in a weapon and has led to some fatal injuries.

These cases emphasize the very strong need for adequate screening and patient education prior to an MRI.

Preventing MRI-Related Incidents

Medical professionals have been trained to avoid risks. This is by properly screening a patient for metallic objects. In general, most pre-scan protocols include:

• Patients are interrogated about implants, recent surgery or exposures at work related to metals.
• Radiologists sometimes use handheld metal detectors to search for hidden items.
• People who work with metal, like welders or machinists, will need additional testing to detect microscopic metal fragments within soft tissues or eyes.

The case emphasizes the importance of product labeling by manufacturers, especially those products that are likely to unintentionally cause harm to health. The patient's assumption that her device was 100% silicone points to a larger problem in consumer markets with misinformation.

It also reminds the patients to report any possible dangers to the medical professionals, no matter how the objects look non-metallic. In sensitive cases, patients can request private discussions with healthcare providers to ensure safety without discomfort.

In the end, it is a joint effort from manufacturers, healthcare professionals, and patients that can prevent such tragedies. Manufacturers must ensure truthful marketing, while healthcare providers should educate patients about the dangers of metal objects in MRI settings. For patients, understanding the risks and actively participating in pre-scan disclosures can be lifesaving.

This young woman's experience is a sobering example of the unforeseen dangers posed by MRI machines when precautions are overlooked. It serves as a wake-up call to address gaps in patient awareness, medical protocols, and product transparency. By learning from this incident, the medical community and the public can work together to ensure MRI scans remain a safe and effective diagnostic tool.

Sharing an update on her husband Bruce Willis’s dementia battle, Emma Heming Willis said he is supported, loved, and cared for by the family.

“You know, we’re doing well. My husband is supported and loved and we’re doing the best we can under the circumstances,” she shared during an interview on Today.

Emma, who disclosed Bruce Willis’s, frontotemporal dementia diagnosis in 2023, is now his primary caregiver.

What Is Frontotemporal Dementia?

According to the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, there is currently no cure or treatment for the condition.

Frontotemporal dementia is a less common type of dementia that mainly affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. It impacts behavior, personality, language, and movement more than memory, especially in the early stages.

Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, which generally affects older adults, FTD can develop earlier in life — sometimes as young as 40.

Symptoms may include personality changes, emotional flatness, lack of empathy, impulsive behavior, and communication difficulties, making the condition especially challenging for families and caregivers.

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Heming Willis On Prioritizing Brain Health

Alongside the demands of caregiving for her 71-year-old husband, Heming Willis said she makes self-care and brain health a priority.

“What I’ve learned is that it’s so important to care for ourselves. If we’re not caring for ourselves, how can we care for the people that we love in our lives?” she said.

“So it’s really important to prioritize our health, to prioritize our brain health. There’s actually actionable things we can do today to support our brain tomorrow,” she added.

Heming Willis also spoke about experiencing “a crazy amount of brain fog” a few years ago, which inspired her to launch her company, Make Time Wellness, focused on encouraging women to pay attention to their overall and brain health.

“I went to my doctor. I was telling him my symptoms, and he basically dismissed me saying, ‘You know what? You’re stressed. You’re not sleeping enough. You have mommy brain. Don’t worry, you’re going to be just fine,’” she recalled.

“I remember leaving and thinking that wasn’t the answer that I wanted.”

She later visited a brain health specialist who encouraged her to make lifestyle changes to better support her brain health.

Heming Willis had previously opened up about caregiving in September, sharing that the way she communicates with her husband has had to change over time.

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How Can We Tackle Caregiver Fatigue?

Caregivers for people with dementia are more likely to feel overwhelmed compared to those caring for individuals with other health conditions.

Experts suggest that when caregivers experience extreme stress and struggle to cope, considering additional professional support or long-term care options may help reduce the burden. Maintaining physical fitness and prioritizing mental well-being can also help caregivers lower stress levels and reduce the risk of depression.

As the true number of COVID-19 cases and deaths is believed to be higher than reported, a new study suggests that the actual toll of long COVID may also double than the current estimates.

The research, led by Mass General Brigham, found that many long COVID cases remain hidden because current surveillance systems rely heavily on diagnostic codes that fail to capture a large number of patients.

Using a novel AI algorithm, researchers analyzed medical records of nearly 460,000 COVID-19 patients across 58 hospitals in the United States. The findings showed that approximately one in six people — around 16 per cent — developed long COVID, translating to more than 18 million Americans.

The figures are nearly double current estimates and highlight the growing burden of chronic health conditions following COVID-19 infection. The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

“Over 10 million people with long COVID would go entirely undetected by the diagnostic code that health systems and policymakers rely on to track the disease burden,” said corresponding author Hossein Estiri, a faculty member in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine.

“The figures we uncovered are almost certainly an undercount,” he added.

Researchers noted that current diagnostic coding systems, including the ICD code U09.9 for post-COVID conditions, identify fewer than 7 per cent of long COVID patients.

What Did The Study Find?

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The study analyzed electronic health records from 457,950 patients who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 across four US regions — New England, Southeast Texas, Southern California and Western Pennsylvania.

Overall, 16.3 per cent of patients were identified with long COVID, with regional rates ranging from 13.6 per cent to 22.7 per cent.

The researchers also found significant regional differences in long COVID symptoms and related conditions, including varying rates of prediabetes, which is emerging as a possible long-term effect of COVID-19.

The study authors noted that undocumented infections — which became more common after widespread testing declined — were not included in the analysis. Patients without long-term medical records were also excluded, suggesting the actual burden of long COVID could be even higher.

“These patients are not absent from clinical care; they are absent from the diagnostic code that would identify them as long COVID patients,” said lead author Jiazi Tian, a data scientist in the Clinical Augmented Intelligence Group at Mass General Brigham.

“The cardiologist seeing new dysautonomia, the endocrinologist seeing new metabolic disease, the neurologist seeing unexplained cognitive complaints — some of these presentations are long COVID arriving without the label that would connect them to a COVID-19 infection,” Tian added.

What Is Long COVID?

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Long COVID refers to symptoms that continue for three months or longer after the initial COVID-19 infection.

Common symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Brain fog
• Headaches
• Breathlessness
• Altered sense of smell or taste

Researchers say many long COVID conditions are still being studied, and some people may experience multiple symptoms at the same time.

The birth rate in England and Wales has been plummeting continuously over the past few years. In 2025, the same trend continued for the fourth year in a row as the birth rate in the island nation had dropped. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported that the birth rate is at its lowest in the last 50 years.

Though this downward birth rate trend is not a recent occurrence, as it was in 2010 when it started to steadily decline. In 2025, the United Kingdom had 585,000 live births, which was 10,000 fewer than the year before and the lowest overall figure since 1977.

The estimated number of children born per woman also fell under 1.4 for England and Wales in 2025, down from 1.9 in 2010. Along with this decline, women are also marrying later at 29.6 years of age. This is about two years older than it was in 2010, when the fall birth rate began.

Other than this huge dip in birth rate, most notably, 4 in 10 children born since 2010 have at least one foreign-born parent, while in 2010 it was 30 percent.

Is the United States In The Same Downward Spiral?

The US is facing a long-term decline in birth rates. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that more than 3.6 million babies were born in 2024. This is just a 1% increase from the previous year, which had been the lowest record in births. While this uptick may seem encouraging, it is not enough to reverse the troubling trend.

The US fertility rate remains around 1.6 births per woman. This is significantly below the 2.1 births required to sustain the population growth without immigration.

As per the demographers, this continuous drop began during the Great Recession in 2007. It has continued steadily since.

One of the biggest shifts is the steep decline in teen births. In 1991, about 62 of every 1,000 teenage girls had a child. This number has now fallen to just under 13 by 2024. This is a historic low that reflects a positive shift, better education, access to contraception, and changing attitudes about early parenthood.

A similar trend is seen among women in their 20s, as the rates there, too, have dropped. In 2007, about 106 of every 1,000 women aged 20 to 24 gave birth. By 2024, the number has dropped to around 57. For women aged 25 to 29, the rate fell from 118 in every 1,000 women in 2007 to 91 in 2024.