
‘Final Destination', MRI edition: New York man killed after metal necklace pulled into machine
The fatal incident occurred on Wednesday at Nassau Open MRI and is under investigation.
According to a statement by the Nassau County Police Department cited by The New York Times, the man entered the MRI room at 4.34pm local time wearing a 'large metallic chain' around his neck. He did not have authorisation to be in the room, police said.
The magnetic force of the machine pulled the man toward it, triggering what authorities described as a 'medical episode'. He was transported to a nearby hospital but died the following afternoon at 2.36pm.
Police have not released the man's name. A spokesman said yesterday that the investigation is ongoing and that no additional information was currently available.
Nassau Open MRI did not respond to requests for comment.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines use powerful magnets and radio waves to generate detailed images of internal organs and tissues.
The machines' strong magnetic fields can be dangerous if metallic objects are brought into the room, with the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering noting that items as large as wheelchairs can become projectiles.
Patients and staff are typically required to remove all metal objects before entering an MRI room. People with certain medical implants may be advised against undergoing scans.
Serious incidents involving MRI machines are rare but have occurred before.
In 2001, a six-year-old boy in New York was killed when a metal oxygen tank was pulled into the machine during a scan.
In 2018, a man in India carrying an oxygen tank died after entering an MRI room.
Most recently in 2023, a nurse in California was crushed and injured when an MRI machine's magnetic pull dragged a hospital bed into her.
Nassau Open MRI offers both closed and open MRI scans, with the latter designed to be more accessible for patients who experience claustrophobia.
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Even with the High Court having awarded RM100,000 in the 2024 case, there continues to be news of such rampant doctors, and the Sessions Court judge noted that the RM100,000 sum has not been potent enough to deter such doctors. In Malaysia, the Health Ministry's guidelines require doctors to get the ministry's 'Letter of Credentialling and Privileging' (LCP) or qualification before they can carry out aesthetic procedures — including breast filler injections — on patients. In R's case, the Sessions Court judge said the RM800,000 exemplary damages award was necessary to let Malaysians know they should check on doctors carrying out beauty treatments on them. While anyone can be blamed for not asking basic questions 'such as whether the person treating them is in the first place a doctor', the Sessions Court judge said it is harder to expect the public to know that the doctor must also have an LCP to carry out the aesthetic procedure on them. 'As such, in deciding this case, and in granting exemplary damages, it is hoped that the general public is more aware of this issue and they should now be on notice to take all necessary precautions when consulting doctors for aesthetic procedures including asking all the right questions regarding your doctors qualifications – specifically whether they have the LCP,' the judge said in a 66-page judgment released yesterday. The judge said the RM800,000 sum was justified as the case involves 'public health and safety and holding recalcitrant doctors accountable to medical law, regulations and ethics', and that it was a fair amount that should remind all doctors to get their qualifications and to stay within the limits of their certifications and their LCP. 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The judge said the doctor had gone on to perform a drainage procedure on R without an LCP; and that the aesthetic centre and its owner had allowed the doctor to carry out those two procedures on R without an LCP; and that there was no proof that the aesthetic centre and its owner had Health Ministry-required licence to carry out the business. Ultimately, the Sessions Court awarded the woman R with compensation totalling RM919,009.60 in the form of RM800,000 exemplary damages, RM85,000 in general damages for her pain and suffering; and RM34,009.60 in special damages; and also awarded RM25,000 in costs to her. What R's lawsuit was about and what the court decided In her lawsuit filed in April 2023 at the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur, the patient R had sued Dr S, the aesthetic centre's owner SHA, and the aesthetic centre's company F to claim for compensation. R's lawsuit claimed that Dr S was negligent by carrying out an aesthetic medical procedure without proper accreditation or licensing and failing to comply with the accepted standard of care by injecting the wrong filler into R's breasts. R claimed that the other two sued were negligent by appointing an unlicensed medical practitioner to perform the procedure and for failing to meet the appropriate standard of care that was expected of them as a medical facility. The Sessions Court found Dr S to be negligent as she performed the procedure on R without the LCP accreditation, also noting that Dr S had failed to disclose to R that she was not legally qualified to perform the procedure. Dr S was also found liable, as R would not have suffered the injuries if she had not used a filler that was later found to be primarily composed of silicone. While Dr S claimed that R had accepted the risks by signing a consent form before the breast filler procedure, the Sessions Court said the patient could not have consented to what had happened to her as she had consented to a pure HA injection instead of a mainly-silicone injection. 'When a doctor performs a procedure without disclosing the fact they are not qualified (such as what happened in this case), any consent obtained under that present is invalid,' the judge said, having noted that a previous High Court decision had found that such failure would undermine a patient's ability to make informed decisions about their treatment. The Sessions Court also found SHA and F to be negligent, noting that the beauty clinic's claimed Petaling Jaya City Council licence was irrelevant as it would only be a local authority's permit to run a healthcare business and is not a valid Health Ministry-required permit to perform medical aesthetics procedures. The Sessions Court said the man SHA is just as liable as Dr S as they were business partners; and the beauty clinic's company F is a healthcare facility which had not shown any accreditation or licensing required under the Private Healthcare Facilities And Services Act 1998 and that it was not qualified to 'play host to what was essentially an unlicensed and therefore illegal business'. R was represented by lawyers Dayang Roziekah Ussin, Abu Daud Abd Rahim and Nik Amalia Suraya Nik Muhammad; while the three sued were represented by lawyer Fakhrul Azman Abu Hasan.