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.

An upright MRI scan is needed to diagnose and investigate cases of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and with the instillation of a new machine in MUSC, patients like Severance can be treated easier.

An anonymous donor will match up to $600,000 in donations to an effort to purchase an upright MRI machine for MUSC Health, the hospital announced Tuesday.

The patient-friendly UPRIGHT® MRI has a near-zero patient claustrophobic rejection rate. As a FONAR customer states, “If the patient is claustrophobic in this scanner, they’ll be ...