Man Dies After Metal Chain Catches On MRI Machine

A 61-year-old man has tragically died during an MRI scan in Westbury, New York.

According to ABC News, the man, whose name has not been revealed, suffered critical injuries after the scan occurred at Nassau Open MRI around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday (July 16). The patient was wearing a metal chain at the time of the procedure, which caused him to be pulled into the machine and suffer from a "medical episode."

According to a statement from the Nassau County Police Department, the man "entered an unauthorized Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) room while the scan was in progress." By the following day, at 2:36 p.m., the man had succumbed to his injuries.

The man's wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, spoke to Long Island outlet News 12 and recalled seeing the machine "snatch" her husband.

"He went limp in my arms, and this is still pulsating in my brain," she said.

Jones-McAllister also detailed that the chain was 20 pounds and used for weight training purposes. The man had apparently worn it to Open MRI before.

While the man's death is reportedly under investigation, MRI patients are generally asked to remove jewelry and other metal items, as a powerful magnetic field is used to generate images.