A Long Island man died in a tragic accident after being pulled into an MRI machine by the powerful magnetic field, while wearing a 20-pound metal chain around his neck, his family claims.
Keith McAllister, 61, was fatally injured on Wednesday afternoon inside Nassau Open MRI in Westbury, New York. According to his family, the freak incident occurred while his wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, was undergoing a routine scan of her knee at the medical facility, per PEOPLE.
McAllister had accompanied his wife to the appointment, but what should have been a standard procedure turned into a horrifying ordeal.
According to a statement from the couple's daughter, Samantha Bodden, posted on a GoFundMe page for funeral expenses, the MRI technician allegedly stepped out of the scan room mid-procedure and asked McAllister to help his wife off the exam table.
Bodden claimed the technician failed to warn McAllister to remove the large chain he was wearing, a critical safety step in MRI environments, where metal objects are strictly prohibited due to the machine’s powerful magnetic force.
“While my mother was laying on the table, the technician left the room to get her husband to help 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,” Bodden wrote.
McAllister was reportedly pulled violently toward the machine, becoming trapped against it. “My mother and the tech tried for several minutes to release him before the police were called,” Bodden added.
He allegedly remained stuck to the MRI machine for nearly an hour before emergency responders were able to free him.
Despite the rescue efforts, McAllister suffered multiple heart attacks during the incident and later died from his injuries, according to his wife, per News 12 Long Island.
The family is pushing back on early media reports suggesting McAllister should not have been in the MRI room. Bodden clarified that her father was led into the area by the technician and did not enter on his own.
“Several news stations are saying he wasn’t authorized to be in the room, when in fact he was, because the technician went and brought him into the room,” she wrote.
MRI machines generate a magnetic field powerful enough to pull metal objects toward them at high speed, posing a serious risk if proper safety precautions aren’t followed. Metal objects can also heat up inside the magnetic field, leading to burns or other injuries.
The tragic accident is now raising serious concerns about safety protocol at the Westbury imaging center, and the family is seeking accountability as they mourn their sudden and devastating loss.