Man dragged to death in MRI scanner wearing 9kg weight-training chain on neck

A man who 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 Nassau County Police, Keith McAllister, 61, entered the MRI room at Nassau Open MRI in Long Island, New York, while his wife's knee was being examined. His 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.

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"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.”

He 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. He 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 the body's internal structures.

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering warns that the magnetic field generated by an MRI 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.

This is not the first such incident in New York.

In 2001, six-year-old Michael Colombini was killed at the Westchester Medical Centre when an oxygen tank was pulled into an MRI chamber by the machine’s 10-ton electromagnet.