Towering high above even the Christmas tree atop the main entrance at Newton Medical Center, a construction crane on Monday morning delivered a very precious piece of cargo to the medical center, its brand-new Philips Ingenia 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. The $1 million MRI apparatus will offer a broader range of diagnostic imaging and will be faster and less constricting for patients, said Jim Weadick, administrator and CEO of Newton Medical Center. It also will allow inpatients to receive MRIs in the hospital, instead of being transported by ambulance to the hospital’s current MRI center across the street.

Because it wouldn’t fit through the doors, the Ingenia 1.5 was hoisted by the crane and then gently lowered through a hatch in the roof.

The hatch, though it hadn’t been opened in 20 years, worked like a charm. After some calibration and testing, the Ingenia should be ready for its first patients on Dec. 20, hospital officials said.