A man in New York got sucked into an open magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine after he entered the room wearing a metal chain, and later died from his critical injuries.
The Nassau County Police Department said that on Wednesday at around 4:34 p.m. the victim, a 61-year-old man, entered an unauthorized room at Nassau Open MRI in Westbury, New York, wearing a large metal chain while an MRI scan was in progress.
He got sucked into the machine, which triggered a medical episode. Police said that he was then taken to a hospital in critical condition, and that he ultimately died in the hospital on Thursday. They did not name him in their release.
The victim’s wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, told regional cable news network News 12 that her husband Keith McAllister entered the room to help her get up after the MRI machine scanned her knee.
“He went limp in my arms, and this is still pulsating in my brain,” Ms. Jones-McAllister said, adding that Mr. McAllister suffered multiple heart attacks. She also said that he had worn the 20-pound weight training chain to the facility before.
“That was not the first time that [the technician] has seen that chain. They had a conversation about it before,” Ms. Jones-McAllister told News 12.
Nassau Open MRI has not yet responded to requests for public comment.
