MRI machine kills man wearing 9 kg metal necklace in New York

India Today

3 days ago

A man has died after being pulled into an active MRI machine at a medical centre in Nassau, Long Island, New York, while wearing a heavy metal necklace. The tragic incident occurred when the man, identified by his wife as Keith, entered the MRI room while the machine was still running. According to the Nassau Police Department, Keith was wearing a large metallic chain around his neck when he was drawn into the powerful magnetic field of the scanner. The force caused what authorities described as a "medical episode", and he was later pronounced dead.advertisementKeith's wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, told News 12 Long Island she had just completed an MRI scan on her knee and needed assistance getting up. She said she asked the technician to call in her husband for help."I yelled out Keith's name, 'Keith, Keith, come help me up,'" she said. According to her, he was wearing a 20-pound (9 kg) chain with a large lock used for weight training when he entered the room.
"At that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in, and he hit the MRI," McAllister recounted. "He waved goodbye to me and then his whole body went limp."She said both she and the technician tried to pry her husband away from the magnet. "I'm saying, 'Could you turn off the machine? Call 911. Do something. Turn this damn thing off!'"McAllister also noted that this wasn't their first visit to the facility, nor was it the first time staff members had seen her husband's chain. She recalled a prior exchange with an employee who had previously commented on the chain, saying, "Oh, that's a big chain."The facility, Nassau Open MRI, has not issued a public comment. The investigation is ongoing.In 2018, an Indian man died after being pulled into an MRI machine while visiting a relative at a Mumbai hospital, police said at the time.Rajesh Maru, 32, was dragged into the machine by its powerful magnetic force after entering the MRI room with an oxygen cylinder, according to a police statement, according to a report by The Guardian.THE REASON BEHIND KEITH'S DEATHMRI machines use strong magnetic fields to produce detailed internal images of the body. Because of their intensity, they can turn metal objects into high-speed projectiles.Patients and anyone entering the MRI room are typically required to remove all metallic items, including jewellery, clothing with metal components, phones, and even hairpins.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has long warned about the dangers posed by metal objects around MRI machines. Even small items such as keys or phones can become dangerous projectiles.advertisementMetal in a room that has the magnet will fly across the room to the scanner, to this large magnet, and will really hit anything in its way, Dr Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a radiologist, told CNN in 2011."So within radiology training, one learns very early that that's not OK, that you can't have external metal in the room, and you can't have metal in the patient," she said, adding "That could lead to a problem."- Ends