A 61-year-old man died after being sucked into a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine at a medical facility while wearing a hefty metal necklace.
The unidentified individual entered a room at Nassau Open MRI on Westbury, New York’s Long Island, without permission while the MRI equipment was running, according to the Nassau County Police Department.
A patient at the clinic notified local reporters that her husband had died. She said she called him into the room after having a scan on Wednesday.
According to officials, the altercation “resulted in a medical episode”, and the guy was rushed to the hospital, where he died on Thursday. MRI machines provide detailed images by using a strong magnetic field.
Patients are mandated to remove metal items and change out of their clothes before undergoing MRI scans or going near the machine.
“The male victim was wearing a large metallic chain around his neck, causing him to be drawn into the machine, which resulted in a medical episode,” said Nassau County Police Department, which is investigating the incident.
Though authorities have not identified the victim, Adrienne Jones-McAllister told local television station News 12 Long Island that her husband, Keith, died.
“He waved goodbye to me, and then his whole body went limp,” she said tearfully.
Mrs Jones-McAllister told the source that she was having an MRI on her knee and had requested her husband to come in to help her get up afterwards. She stated that he was wearing a 20 lb (9 kg) chain with a lock for weight training.
“At that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in, and he hit the MRI,” she said.
Jones-McAllister stated that the technician had tried to pull her husband away from the machine.
“I’m saying, ‘Could you turn off the machine?” she told the outlet. “Call 911. Do something. Turn this damn thing off!”
According to the US Food and Drug Administration, MRI machines have magnetic fields that attract magnetic objects of all sizes, including keys, mobile phones, and even oxygen tanks, which “may cause damage to the scanner or injury to the patient or medical professionals if those objects become projectiles”.
In 2001, a six-year-old boy died from a broken skull during an MRI scan at a New York City medical facility when the machine’s tremendous magnetic field pushed an oxygen tank across the room.
