Man Dies After Being Pulled into Machine by Magnet While Wearing Metal Chain
A 61-year-old man has died after being pulled into an MRI machine in New York while wearing a heavy weight-training chain around his neck, according to police.
The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon at Nassau Open MRI. The man entered the MRI room during a scan, and the machine’s strong magnetic force attracted him because of the metal chain.
He passed away on Thursday. Police have not released his name yet. Authorities stated that he was not supposed to be in the MRI room.
His wife told News 12 Long Island that she was getting an MRI on her knee and asked the technician to call her husband for help getting off the table. She called out to him, and as he approached, the machine pulled him in. “I said: ‘Could you turn off the machine, call 911, do something!’” she recalled, visibly upset.
The technician tried to help pull him away from the machine, but it was too difficult. After being freed, the man suffered several heart attacks, reports The Independent.
Earlier reports indicated that he had a “medical episode” and was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
This is not the first time an MRI-related death has occurred in New York. In 2010, a family received a $2.9 million settlement after a similar incident.
MRI machines use powerful magnets to create images of soft tissue in the body, helping doctors detect abnormalities. The magnetic field can be extremely strong, potentially turning metal objects into dangerous projectiles. This is why MRI technicians ensure patients have no metal on them before the scan.
The University of California, San Francisco, warns that even small metal objects can become hazardous when in an MRI’s magnetic field. In 2001, a six-year-old boy died when an oxygen tank was pulled into an MRI machine at Westchester Medical Center.
