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Case 9

A 19 year old boy, Jason, was taken by his friends to the accident and emergency department of Tuen Mun Hospital at 3am suffering from multiple injuries. He had taken an overdose of ketamine at a rave party and fell from a stairway because of hallucinations. He was taken to the radiography A&E department for a general x-ray examination. He complained of head pain, back pain and knee pain.

Two radiographers, Leo and Sam, were on duty that night. Leo was a senior radiographer while Sam was a junior staff. They were asked to examine Jason's cervical spine, lumbar spine and extremities. Jason was sent to the x-ray department under the supervision of two nurses, and after entering the x-ray room, the two nurses waited outside because they thought that Leo and Sam would be able to manage Jason during the examination. Jason entered the examination room on a stretcher. For the cervical and lumbar spine examination, Leo and Sam moved Jason to the examination table, and then Leo went to use the phone so he asked Sam to take care of Jason for a while. Afterwards, Sam discovered that there were no cassettes left and he decided to take some from the next examination room. He thought that it would just take him ten or twenty seconds and he thought Jason was staying quite still on the couch. He decided to collect the cassettes. However, when he came back, he discovered Jason was on the floor. He had fallen again, in the examination room, due to hallucinations.