Overview

• On July 16 around 4:30 p.m., a 61-year-old man entered an active MRI room at Nassau Open MRI in Westbury while wearing a large metal chain and was violently drawn into the scanner
• The magnetic force triggered a medical episode and critical injuries that led to his death at a local hospital on July 17
• Nassau County Police homicide squad is probing how the facility’s access controls and metal-screening procedures were bypassed
• American College of Radiology guidelines require multi-zone screening, removal of all metallic items and locked doors to prevent projectiles in MRI suites
• A 2019 Medical Physics review documented 141 MRI projectile events over ten years, highlighting the catastrophic risk when metal breaches scanning rooms