A man has died after being pulled into an MRI machine while his wife was undergoing a scan at a clinic in New York. Keith McAllister, 61, was killed at the Nassau Open MRI clinic in Westbury, Long Island, on 16 July when his weight-training chain became a projectile due to the machine's powerful magnetic field.
According to his wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, she called for her husband's help during the scan. A technician allowed Mr McAllister to enter the room while he was still wearing the 20lb metal chain. He was then sucked into the scanner and suffered a medical episode, later dying in hospital.
Mrs McAllister told local media she saw the machine snatch her husband and pull him inside. She pleaded for staff to call emergency services and turn off the device. She said he went limp in her arms after being attached to the machine for nearly an hour before the chain could be released.
The couple had visited the clinic before, and Mrs McAllister noted that staff had previously seen the chain and spoken about it. The clinic declined to comment when contacted.
US regulators, including the Food and Drug Administration, warn that MRI machines generate strong magnetic fields that can turn metal objects into dangerous projectiles. A similar incident in 2001 killed a six-year-old boy in New York when an oxygen tank was pulled into an MRI chamber.
