My Dad's In The Hospital, Can I Bring My iPhone In There?

superstar · Apr 19, 2011

My dad was in ICU sedated asleep for 8 days. He was than woken up and sent to ''Intermediate'' care, which is where most/former ICU patients go to recover a bit more, and stay under medical care. It's a room with about 12 beds with patients laying in them, nurses, and a doctor on watch in the center of the room.

My dads been in there for the past week, which would be a total of 14 days or so in the hospital now. I really wanted to bring him my iPhone 4 just to play him a couple of videos in the 20 minutes I get to see him a day. I figured I can just throw on some preloaded mp4 files of Pink Panther, or Michael Jackson for him to watch. I want to have the phone on airplane mode, sanitized before hand with lysol wipes, and held in my hands - not his - during play.

Do any of you think this is a bad idea? I don't want it to interfere with any medical equipment, although being on airplane mode shouldn't affect anything right? I heard somewhere that even having a cell phone working in a hospital is a myth, that it only affects xray rooms, or something along those lines. There are ''No Cell Phone'' signs in certain hospitals back home, but you never know if those rooms are patient areas, or just general equipment. I'm abroad right now so things are different in these hospitals, I don't see a sign anywhere... All I've seen is a sign that says ''Don't allow patients to make calls over cell phones''.

I also toy with the idea of throwing it in a zip lock bag after sanitizing it. That way he can actually hold it without getting any germs on his hands. Or I'll hold it like that I don't mind.

WDyathinkPeople?

I don't want him going nuts in there he's in a room with 3 small windows that face a wall, and well I don't want his time in there to lead to depression, or just worried thoughts.

- Concerned Son

:confused

BILLMCC66 · Apr 19, 2011

Hospitals here in Belgium have signs at the entrance to say "please switch off all mobile phones" but a lot of people ignore this instruction.

In ICU related situations i would first ask someone in the unit because heart monitors can be effected.

I hope your dad recovers soon.

Sgt. Tibbs · Apr 19, 2011

It depends on what kind of floor he's on. Most of them you can't have a phone turned on, but some of them have free wi-fi for the patients. You'll be better off calling the desk and asking them.

Rikky · Apr 19, 2011

Its not a myth but it has been dragged completely out of proportion.

I believe they keep it up because people talking on their cell phones disturbs the patients,anyway as long as you don't make any calls you won't transmit any kind of signal to interfere and even if you did make an outgoing call you have to hold the phone with about 3cm or an inch of the sensitive piece of equipment to effect it.

If the small microwaves that come from cell phones did effect hospital machines then so would the 0.5 kilowatt cell phone microwave transmitters they have on nearly every hospital roof over here,that's 1000 times the power of a cell phone directly above the building.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/4718241.stm

When hospitals found out how much could be made from cell phone towers on the roof the machines seemed to become much more stable overnight-D

What you want or what you think is logical doesn't often encroach the rules though:-D

I were up to me I'd allow them,I think boredom is biggest killer in hospitals.

Colemanguy · Apr 19, 2011

Not saying i disagree with the blown out of proportion, but if your cell is turned on and capable of making phone calls it is communicating with the cell towers. If you have bars its sending a sort of keep alive or still here pulse every so often id bet.

Rikky · Apr 19, 2011

Colemanguy said: ↑

Not saying i disagree with the blown out of proportion, but if your cell is turned on and capable of making phone calls it is communicating with the cell towers. If you have bars its sending a sort of keep alive or still here pulse every so often id bet.
Click to expand...

Well AFIK the only outward signal it sends is when you place a call or connect to the internet,it only chooses a transmitter and tries to connect with it once you choose to make a call.

It would make sense to do it this way otherwise the relay station would become overwhelmed with random phones tryna connect,it would also drain your battery.

Let's say you've just entered a phone number into your cell phone and pressed the [SND] key. Here's what happens next:

1. Scan Control Channels: Your cell phone needs to use the "closest" base station because that's the one with the strongest signal and the one that will give the best connection. To find the closest base station, your phone checks all 21 control channels and determines which has the strongest signal.
2. Choose Strongest: Your cell phone chooses the strongest signal and decides to use that one for placing the call.
3. Send Origination Message: Your cell phone now transmits a very short message (about 1/4 second) that contains the MIN (Mobile Identification Number, aka your cell phone number), its ESN (Electronic Serial Number), and the number you just dialed.
4. Get Channel Assignment: After the cellular service provider verifies that you are a valid, paying customer (based on the MIN and ESN your phone sent), the base station sends a Channel Assignment message to your phone (also a short 1/4-second burst). This message tells your phone where (that is, on which channel) the conversation will take place.
5. Begin Conversation: Your cell phone tunes to the assigned channel and begins the call. The spurts you hear that indicate the phone is ringing at the other end (which is called "ring back") or the busy signal that you hear do not begin until you get to this step. Both of these are transmitted by the base station as an audio signal just like the voice of the person you are calling.
Click to expand...

I don't know how modern cell phones work,I don't have one so have never really had the will to research them.

Sgt. Tibbs · Apr 19, 2011

Rikky said: ↑

Well AFIK the only outward signal it sends is when you place a call or connect to the internet,it only chooses a transmitter and tries to connect with it once you choose to make a call.
Click to expand...

Except for the part where if your phone is showing the time and indicates you have signal, it is at the very least tickling the tower. It's how the police can track phones that are turned on.

Rikky · Apr 19, 2011

Sgt. Tibbs said: ↑

Except for the part where if your phone is showing the time and indicates you have signal, it is at the very least tickling the tower. It's how the police can track phones that are turned on.
Click to expand...

After a little research I found out newer phones send a roaming signal and the towers negotiate which one will take the call.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking

Newer phones may also allow the tracking of the phone even when turned on and not active in a telephone call-. This results from the roaming procedures that perform hand over of the phone from one base station to another.[6]
Click to expand...

As far as I knew the roaming signal just meant you were using a different provider,I know you can disable roaming to different provider towers but Idon't know if you can disable the roaming signal or blip.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6311305_stop-roaming-phone-signal.html

I'd like to know how often these roaming blips or signals are sent if anyone knows I can't find anything.

Here's some more info

* When you first power up the phone, it listens for an SID (see sidebar) on the control channel. The control channel is a special frequency that the phone and base station use to talk to one another about things like call set-up and channel changing. If the phone cannot find any control channels to listen to, it knows it is out of range and displays a "no service" message.

* When it receives the SID, the phone compares it to the SID programmed into the phone. If the SIDs match, the phone knows that the cell it is communicating with is part of its home system.

* Along with the SID, the phone also transmits a registration request, and the MTSO keeps track of your phone's location in a database -- this way, the MTSO knows which cell you are in when it wants to ring your phone.

* The MTSO gets the call, and it tries to find you. It looks in its database to see which cell you are in.

* The MTSO picks a frequency pair that your phone will use in that cell to take the call.

* The MTSO communicates with your phone over the control channel to tell it which frequencies to use, and once your phone and the tower switch on those frequencies, the call is connected. Now, you are talking by two-way radio to a friend.

* As you move toward the edge of your cell, your cell's base station notes that your signal strength is diminishing. Meanwhile, the base station in the cell you are moving toward (which is listening and measuring signal strength on all frequencies, not just its own one-seventh) sees your phone's signal strength increasing. The two base stations coordinate with each other through the MTSO, and at some point, your phone gets a signal on a control channel telling it to change frequencies. This hand off switches your phone to the new cell.
Click to expand...

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone3.htm

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My Dad's In The Hospital, Can I Bring My iPhone In There?

superstar Major-Superstar

BILLMCC66 Bionic Belgian

Sgt. Tibbs Ultra Geek

Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

Colemanguy MajorGeek

Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

Sgt. Tibbs Ultra Geek

Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind