A 61-year-old man has died after being violently pulled into an MRI scanner whilst wearing a 20-pound weight-training chain around his neck at a medical facility in New York, prompting fresh scrutiny of safety protocols at imaging centres.
Kevin McAllister was drawn into the powerful magnetic field at Nassau Open MRI in Westbury on Wednesday afternoon after entering the room to help his wife Adrienne, who had just completed a knee scan. The heavy metallic chain he wore for fitness training became a deadly projectile in the presence of the machine’s 10-ton electromagnet.
His widow, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, witnessed the horrific incident and described the moment her husband was “snatched” by the machine. I saw him walk toward the table and then the machine just snatched him,” she told News 12 Long Island through tears. “He went limp in my arms – and this is still pulsating in my brain.”
The tragedy occurred at approximately 4:30 p.m. when Mrs Jones-McAllister asked the technician to summon her husband to help her get off the examination table. Despite the couple having visited the facility previously, where staff had noticed and commented on the chain with remarks like “Ooooooh, that’s a big chain!”, Mr McAllister entered the room still wearing the 20-pound fitness accessory.
“At that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in and he hit the MRI,” Mrs Jones-McAllister recounted. She pleaded desperately with staff: “Could you turn off the machine, call 911, do something, Turn this damn thing off!”
Fatal Magnetic Force
The technician attempted to help pull Mr McAllister free from the machine’s grip, but the magnetic force proved insurmountable. “He waved goodbye to me and then his whole body went limp,” his widow said. Mr McAllister suffered multiple heart attacks after being freed from the machine and was pronounced dead the following day at hospital.
Nassau County Police Department confirmed they responded to what was initially reported as a “medical episode” at the facility. Their statement noted: “The male victim was wearing a large metallic chain around his neck causing him to be drawn into the machine which resulted in a medical episode.”
Criminal activity is not suspected, but police have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death. Nassau Open MRI declined to comment when contacted, and phone calls to the facility went unanswered over the weekend.
Medical professionals expressed shock at the apparent breach of safety protocols. Dr Payal Sud, an emergency medicine physician at North Shore University Hospital, told WABC: “If this was a chain that was wrapped around the neck, I could imagine any kind of strangulation injuries that could happen, asphyxiation, cervical spine injuries if the patient was slams against the MRI.”
Powerful Magnetic Dangers
MRI machines employ exceptionally strong magnetic fields – a 1.5 Tesla magnet generates a force approximately 21,000 times greater than Earth’s natural magnetic field. According to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, these units are “strong enough to fling a wheelchair across the room.”
Charles Winterfeldt, director of imaging services at North Shore University Hospital, explained that metal objects near an MRI “would act like a torpedo trying to get into the middle of the center of the magnet.” Standard safety protocols require all patients and visitors to remove jewellery, electrical devices and any metal objects before entering scanner rooms.
The tragedy is not the first MRI-related death in New York. In 2001, six-year-old Michael Colombini was killed at Westchester Medical Center when an oxygen tank flew into the chamber, drawn by the machine’s powerful electromagnet. The family later settled a lawsuit for $2.9 million in 2010.
String of Industrial Accidents
The MRI incident occurred just three days after another workplace tragedy in Vernon, California, where a 19-year-old sanitation worker died after being sucked into a meat grinder at a Tina’s Burritos factory. The teenager was cleaning the industrial food processor on Sunday night when it unexpectedly activated around 9:30 p.m.
Despite hearing his screams for help, co-workers were unable to shut down the machine in time to save him. “We are heartbroken to confirm that a Sanitation worker lost his life on Sunday night, July 13, 2025, while performing sanitation duties at our Vernon facility,” the company stated.
Vernon Police Department Sergeant Daniel Onopa said there was no indication of foul play, describing it as a “terrible accident.” The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has launched an investigation into whether proper lockout/tagout procedures – designed to prevent machines from activating during maintenance – were followed.
Two weeks prior to these incidents, 38-year-old Nicolas Lopez Gomez, a Guatemalan national working under the alias Edward Avila, died after becoming trapped in an industrial oven at the Gilster-Mary Lee cereal plant in Perryville, Missouri. Police responded on June 26 to find Gomez had been using a power washer on the machine from outside when he somehow ended up inside the shut-down oven.
Growing Safety Concerns
These three deaths within weeks of each other have renewed focus on workplace safety protocols across various industries. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating both the California and Missouri incidents for potential safety violations.
MRI safety experts stress that the magnetic field is always active, meaning no person should enter scan rooms without clearance from certified technologists. Many facilities now employ ferromagnetic detection devices at entrances to prevent metal objects from entering scanner rooms.
“The dangers could be catastrophic and it underscores why we have all the safety precautions in place,” Dr Sud emphasised regarding MRI protocols.
Mrs Jones-McAllister, still struggling with the loss of her husband, told News 12: “I haven’t been able to sleep, I’m barely eating, I just can’t believe it. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing.”
The series of industrial accidents highlights the critical importance of rigorous safety procedures and proper training to prevent such tragedies in workplace environments where powerful machinery poses inherent dangers to workers and visitors alike.
Follow for more updates on Britannia Daily
