Man dragged to death in MRI scanner was wearing 9kg chain around neck
A man who tragically died after being pulled into an MRI machine was wearing a 9kg weight-training chain around his neck while his wife was undergoing a scan, officials have revealed.
According to local cops, Keith McAllister, 61, entered the MRI room at Nassau Open MRI in Long Island, New York, while his wife's knee was being examined. The man's wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, said she had called out to her husband for assistance when the incident unfolded.
"I yelled out Keith's name, [shouting] Keith, come help me up," she said. Ms Jones-McAllister recounted how her husband entered the scanning room still wearing the heavy metal chain he regularly used for weight training, reports the Mirror.
"I saw the machine snatch him around and pull him into the machine," she said through tears. "He died, he lost, he went limp in my arms." The powerful magnetic force generated by the MRI scanner drew McAllister into the machine by the chain, resulting in what police described as a 'medical episode.'
Keith was left in a critical condition and rushed to hospital. Ms Jones-McAllister said her husband suffered a series of heart attacks after being freed from the machine, and was later pronounced dead.
MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, is a non-invasive medical imaging technique that uses powerful magnets and radio waves to produce detailed images of internal structures within the body.
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The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering warns that the magnetic field generated by an MRI machine is strong enough to pull ferromagnetic objects with deadly force.
"Very powerful forces are exerted on objects made of iron, some steels, and other magnetic materials," it says, noting the field can be 'strong enough to fling a wheelchair across the room'.
MRI-related accidents are rare but can prove fatal when they do occur. However, this is not the first such incident in New York.
In 2001, Michael Colombini, 6, was killed at the Westchester Medical Centre when an oxygen tank was pulled into an MRI chamber by the machine's 10-ton electromagnet.
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