The heartbroken widow of the Long Island man killed when he was violently yanked into an MRI machine has accused the radiology office of negligence for not telling her husband to remove his 20-pound chain from his neck.
Adrienne Jones-McAllister, 61, filed a lawsuit against Nassau Open MRI on Tuesday with the state Supreme Court in Nassau County for the freak accident that claimed her husband Keith McAllister’s life last year, Newsday reported.
The complaint also alleges that the grief-stricken widow has experienced “severe and serious personal, psychological and emotional injuries” as a result of McAllister’s death, resulting in “permanent effects of pain, disability, disfigurement and loss of body function.”
The lawsuit claims the grieving widow had “witnessed and was totally aware through all of her senses of the injuries and suffering and eventual death of her husband,” according to Newsday.
McAllister was killed while he was wearing the massive 20-pound metal necklace when he was sucked into the MRI machine by its magnetic force at Nassau Open MRI in Westbury on July 16.
Jones-McAllister, who was at the center to have an image of her knee taken, claimed she and a technician had struggled to free McAllister from the machine for almost an hour.
When McAllister was finally freed, he was rushed to the hospital in critical condition — having suffered multiple heart attacks as a result of the incident.
Jones-McAllister also previously blamed the technician for not telling her husband to remove his chain.
“That was not the first time that guy has seen that chain” on her husband, she told News 12 Long Island through tears in July. “They had a conversation about it before.”
The lawsuit, filed by her lawyers Andrew Finkelstein of Jacoby & Meyers and the Crump Law Office, also named East Coast Radiology, PC, which contracted with the Westbury facility to use its MRI machine, Sun Enterprises, an LLC that leased the facility, and GM Partners Westbury LLC, which owned the property, according to Newsday.
The amount she is seeking in damages has not been disclosed.
MRI machines produce an extremely powerful magnetic field that can attract metal objects with tremendous force.
Metal items left on or near a patient can be violently pulled toward the machine at high speed, causing serious injury or death. The machines can also heat metal objects rapidly, potentially causing serious burns to the patient.
Given the dangers, patients are required to remove all metal objects before entering an MRI suite, and screening patients for metal before entering the scanning room is considered a basic and non-negotiable safety standard in medical facilities.
