Long Island man wearing 9kg-metal necklace dies after being sucked into MRI machine
The man, 61, had entered the MRI room while a scan was underway Wednesday afternoon at the Nassau Open MRI. The machine's strong magnetic force drew him in by the metallic chain, according to a release from the Nassau County Police Department.
He died on Thursday afternoon, but a police officer who answered the phone at the Nassau County police precinct where the MRI facility is located, said the department had not yet been given permission to release his name.
The man was not supposed to be in the room, according to the police.
His wife told News 12 Long Island in a recorded interview that she was undergoing an MRI on her knee when she asked the technician to get her husband to help her get off the table. She said she called out to him.
Her husband was wearing a 20-pound (9kg) chain that he uses for weight training, an object they'd had a casual conversation about during a previous visit, according to the report.
When he got close to her, she said the machine pulled him in. 'I said: 'Could you turn off the machine, call 911, do something, Turn this damn thing off!'' she recalled, as tears ran down her face.
She said the technician helped her try to pull her husband off the machine but it was impossible.
She said he suffered a series of heart attacks after he was freed from the machine.
Earlier, police said the man suffered a "medical episode" and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. He was last described as being in critical condition, PIX11 reported.
A 61-year-old man in New York was injured when he entered a room with an active MRI machine while wearing a metal chain around his neck. (stock image) (AFP/Getty)
It wasn't the first New York death to result from an MRI machine.
In 2001, a six-year-old child from Croton-on-Hudson was killed at the Westchester Medical Center when an oxygen tank flew into the chamber, drawn in by the MRI's 10-ton electromagnet.
In 2010, records filed in Westchester County revealed that the family settled a lawsuit for $2.9m.
MRI machines are designed to find ailments in the body using powerful magnets. The magnets create a strong magnetic field which is used in scanning bodies.
The machines can then produce an image of a person's soft tissue that allow doctors to look for abnormalities, like tumors, or damage to internal organs, according to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
'The magnetic field extends beyond the machine and exerts very powerful forces on objects of iron, some steels, and other magnetizable objects; it is strong enough to fling a wheelchair across the room,' the institute explains.
This is why MRI technicians are thorough when making sure that patients have no metal on their person – or inside their bodies – before they are imaged using an MRI machine.
"The static magnetic field of the MRI system is exceptionally strong. A 1.5 T magnet generates a magnetic that is approximately 21,000 greater than the earth's natural field," according to the University of California, San Francisco's Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging.
The department noted in a write-up about the potential hazards of MRI machines that magnetic metal objects "can become airborne projectiles". Even small objects – like paper clips or hairpins – can reach a terminal velocity of 40mph when pulled by an MRI's magnets.
In addition to the potential dangers from flying metal, MRI machine magnets can also erase credit cards, destroy phones, and shut down pacemakers.
The Independent has reached out to Nassau Open MRI for comments.
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