MUSC celebrates first upright MRI machine in the Lowcountry

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) cut the ribbon on its first upright MRI machine.

This comes as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is being heavily studied at the medical school, led by Dr. Sahil Patel. Dr. Patel is an expert in the connective tissue disorder and has been helping diagnose patients like Sydney Severance, who said other machines weren’t able to identify what was going on with her health.

“It’s so surreal. It changed the trajectory of my life. I mean it gave me answers I’ve been suffering for so long with no idea why and I know there’s so many other patients with EDS and craniocervical instability that are also suffering and don’t know why,” Severance, a former patient and ‘Operation Upright’ founder, said. “I’m just so excited because it will streamline the process and make it easier for people to get diagnosed.”

When she was finally diagnosed, there weren’t any upright MRI machines nearby. Dr. Chip Norris, professor of medicine at MUSC, said this is because the tool was rare in 2020 for those in Lowcountry.

“Many of them would have to go out of state and for many of these patients traveling is very complicated,” Norris said.

Severance realized this was an issue and championed her own cause. She raised over $1.2 million for ‘Operation Upright’ as she hoped to help future patients get their diagnosis closer to home and give back to Dr. Patel.

“I know there’s so many EDS patients, and it was once thought to be a rare disease but it’s really not. Right now they’re estimated one in 500 people might have this and it’s a lot more common than we think,” Severance said. “Dr. Patel the neurosurgeon that did my surgeries – I wanted to get this upright MRI for him.”