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Secret Radiology Lounge
Discovered
Room behind MRI alternator has couches and
giant screen TV
DENVER, CO--Dr. Daniel Ratliff says he was just looking
for a radiologist on Tuesday to help read a spine MRI.
What he found was not one, but eleven radiologists
"hanging out" in a secret room behind the MRI reading board.
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Radiology lounge entrance
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"I was pretty sure there wasn't going to be
anyone available to read the film, since it was after three [PM],"
says Ratliff, a surgery intern at the University Of Colorado Medical Center.
"Usually they're gone by then, and sure enough, they were."
Still, he says, he heard odd noises... clapping?
cheering? The closer he came to the MRI alternator, the louder they became.
"So I started flicking the white light switches
back and forth, and I must have hit on some secret combination, because
all of a sudden the whole thing spun around just like the bookshelf in
the Batcave."
Ratliff says he found himself in a large carpeted
room with "four plush couches and a giant screen T.V.," along
with eleven radiologists watching a basketball game.
"They were just hanging out. I'm not sure who
was more surprised - me or them," he says.
As news of the discovery spreads, similarly hidden
lounges are being located behind radiology alterator boards all across
the country. To many physicians, they help explain where the radiologists
are between 11 PM and 1 PM, or after 3 PM, on weekdays, and anytime after
10 AM on weekends.
Pressed for comment, Dr. Madeline Rayburn, chairperson
of the American Roentgenological Association, downplayed the significance
of the lounges.
"Look, radiology is a stressful profession,"
she said. "You're sitting all day looking at films. It's dark. Did
I mention you're sitting all day?"
"The fact of the matter is, no radiologist likes
to be bothered when we're trying to relax. You woudn't either. So give
us a break, willya?!"
With that, she flicked several light switches on
the alternator she was sitting at, and quickly spun from view.
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