Man killed in horrific MRI incident was stuck in machine for nearly an hour: Family

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The man who died after being sucked into an MRI machine while wearing a 20-pound chain was walked into the room by a technician who failed to tell him to remove the massive necklace, his family claims.

Keith McAllister, 61, of Westbury, N.Y., died while inside Nassau Open MRI on July 16 where his wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, was undergoing a knee scan.

“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,” Nassau County Police said in a statement.

McAllister was taken to hospital in critical condition but died the next day.

“While my mother was laying on the table, the technician left the room to get her husband to help her off the table,” Jones-McAllister’s daughter, Samantha Bodden, wrote in a GoFundMe.

“He forgot to inform him to take the chain he was wearing from around his neck off when the magnet sucked him in.”

She added: “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.”

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Bodden reiterated the claim that McAllister was not told to take off his chain before he was led into the room.

“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,” said her statement.

The strong magnetic field created by an MRI machine can cause metal objects to be pulled in with force, as well as heat up metal objects, potentially burning a patient.

Jones-McAllister told News 12 Long Island that the technician had commented during a previous visit about her husband’s “big chain.”

“That was not the first time that guy has seen that chain,” she claimed. “They had a conversation about it before.”

When McAllister got close to her, Jones-McAllister recalled to the outlet, “at that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in and he hit the MRI.”

She added: “He went limp in my arms, and this is still pulsating in my brain.”

He died the following day after experiencing “several heart attacks following the tragic accident,” the GoFundMe campaign says.

Bodden remembered McAllister as a “husband, a father, a stepfather, a grandfather, a brother, and an uncle” as well as “a friend to many.”