Man died after 9kg weight training chain pulled him into MRI machine

A man in the US has died after a 9kg weight training chain that he was wearing pulled him into an MRI machine.

Keith McAllister, 61, entered a room at the Nassau Open MRI clinic when his wife was having a scan of her knee done, when he was pulled into the machine by his neck due to the large chain he was wearing, and the MRI machine’s large magnetic force.

Mr McAllister was wearing a large chain, which he used for weight training, around his neck when he was pulled into the machine. He suffered several heart attacks following the tragic incident and was later pronounced dead.

A man in the US has died after a 9kg weight training chain that he was wearing pulled him into an MRI machine. Pic: Getty Images

Mr McAllister’s wife, Adrienne Jones McAllister, explained to 12 News that she was calling out for her husband to help her off the machine’s table when tragedy struck.

‘I yelled out Keith’s name, [shouting] “Keith, come help me up,’ Ms Jones McAllister said. ‘I saw the machine snatch him around and pull him into the machine. He died, he lost. He went limp in my arms.’

Police said that the incident resulted in Mr McAllister having a medical episode, with him later dying from multiple heart attacks in hospital.

Keith McAllister passed away from several heart attacks that he suffered after his weight training chain pulled him into the machine as his wife’s knee was being scanned. Pic: GoFundMe

A GoFundMe has since been started to raise funds for Mr McAllister’s funeral, with his daughter writing ‘Keith was a husband, a father, a stepfather, a grandfather, a brother, and an uncle. He was a friend to many. He was on a fixed income from Social Security and didn’t have much.’

MRI machines use strong magnetic fields to create imagery of inside the body to check for injuries, with ‘very powerful forces’ exerted on metal objects including jewellery, pacemakers and rods from previous injuries.

Incidents are rare, but fatal — with a six-year-old boy passing away in Westchester, Pennsylvania, when he was undergoing an MRI and an oxygen tank flew into the chamber after it was drawn in by the powerful magnets.

MRI machines use powerful electromagnets to create an image of the inside of the body, with metal implants being strictly forbidden as the magnetic fields pull them into the machine. Pic: Getty

The dangers of MRIs were also shown in the latest Final Destination film, Final Destination Bloodlines, when two characters were killed by a malfunctioning machine — one character who had a wheelchair impale against him, while another character had a coil from a vending machine kill him.

MRI machines usually range from 1.5 Tesla to 3 Tesla, which can be around 60,000 to 100,000 times more powerful than the Earth’s magnetic field.