Credit: GoFundMe
Man, 61, Dies After Being Sucked Into MRI Machine While Wearing Long Metal Necklace
A 61-year-old man died under horrific circumstances after he was sucked into an MRI machine due to wearing a heavy metal necklace.
Keith McAllister was attending the Nassau Open MRI clinic in Long Island, New York, to accompany his wife, Adrienne Jones-McCallister, who was having a scan performed on her knee.
However, tragedy struck when Jones-McCallister called for her husband to come in and help her after the scan had been performed; something which ultimately led him to losing his life.
How do MRI machines work?
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines work by creating detailed images of inside your body without using X-rays, instead taking advantage of the fact the human body is mostly made up of water.
They use an extremely powerful magnet to temporarily align the hydrogen atoms in your body’s water molecules, before sending radio wwaves to disturb them.
As the atoms return to their normal position, they release tiny signals that are detected by the scanner.
A computer uses these signals to create highly detailed images of the inside of your body without using X-rays.
Safety precautions in place to avoid disasters
Hospitals and clinics where MRI scans are performed are obliged to several layers of safety precautions in place to avoid disasters happening, such as what happened to 61-year-old McAllister.
First, a detailed MRI safety questionnaire will be filled in by the scan, however this is just for the person being scanned.
They will then be instructed to remove all metal items, including jewelry, watches, phones, hearing aids, removable dental work and any clothing that may contain fasteners or underwires.
Most importantly, access into the MRI scanner room is strictly controlled, with warning signs highlighting the powerful magnetic field is always on.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates MRI safety and warns that the machines can create a ‘strong magnetic field’ which creates a physical hazard.
It says that ‘careful screening of people and objects entering the MRI environment is critical to ensure nothing enters the magnet area that may become a projectile’.
Man’s metal chain pulled him in
McAllister had been waiting outside the scanning room, as per the safety precautions, until the scan had been completed, when his wife asked him to come in and assist her getting out.
Speaking to News 12 Long Island, Jones-McAllister said she called out, ‘Keith, come help me up,’ from the table.
She says the technician operating the MRI machine then allowed the 61-year-old to walk into the room, despite the fact he had not undergone all the pre-scan checks to ensure he would be safe to enter.
McAllister was wearing a 20lb metal weight with a lock that he used for weight training.
Jones-McAllister recalled the moment she saw her husband walking towards the table where she was lying, before witnessing the machine ‘snatch him and pull him into the machine’.
“At that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in, and he hit the MRI,” she said, via the BBC.
She revealed this particular day was not the first time her husband had been at the MRI clinic, as he had accompanied her for scans there previously.
She also claimed it was not the first time her husband had worn the metal weight, and that the employee had been it before, and even commented on it.
Jones-McAllister said the technician attempted to pull her husband away from the machine.
“I’m saying, ‘Could you turn off the machine?” she said. “Call 911. Do something. Turn this damn thing off!'”
Tragically, she said her husband ‘went limp in [her] arms’. A memory which she says is ‘still pulsating in [her] brain’.
In a GoFundMe post, Jones-McAllister’s daughter claims the technician left the room to ask her step-dad to come in and help get her off the table.
“He forgot to inform him to take the chain he was wearing from around his neck off when the magnet sucked him in,” she wrote.
“My mother and the tech tried for several minutes to release him before the police were called. He was attached to the machine for almost an hour before they could release the chain from the machine.”
McAllister tragically died the following day after suffering from several heart attacks.
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