this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 27 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Again, why aren't there metal detectors at the entrances to MRI machines everywhere? For the cost of those machines, the cost of a metal detector is peanuts

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A - standard metal detectors probably won't work well right at the MRI room door. Some facilities may have a longer hallway for access and putting one there, far from the actual MRI suite, would make a lot of sense (I think I visited one location that had that layout), but not all facilities are laid out in a way that that could work.

B - the nature of how a metal detector works would probably have negative impacts on MRI image quality if it is too close to the imager - even outside the shield room door.

I did a sort of tour of a couple dozen MRI facilities for a couple of years, the stronger ones all have radio-frequency shield rooms complete with metal / gasketed doors that are supposed to be closed during imaging. Actual practice regarding keeping those doors closed was pretty loose in the places / times I was visiting. And, in the article's case it sounds like imaging wasn't in progress so the door was probably standing open...

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm sorry but it can't be that hard to have an automated lock on the door. If metal detectors influence the machine, which is possible, then out them further away. Again, with MRI machines costing what they do, these aren't the prices you would worry about.

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 1 points 2 days ago

it can’t be that hard to have an automated lock on the door.

No, but human factors dictate: it can be that hard to use the lock properly.

out them further away.

Some places do this, other places don't have a good layout to make metal detectors a practical thing for the MRI suite.

with MRI machines costing what they do, these aren’t the prices you would worry about.

Often (depending on location), the most expensive part of the MRI suite isn't the device, but the room itself.

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

not at all practical. a big ol buzzer would have prevented this maybe, but really it's the relaxed culture around the MRI that let it happen. people need to be told either you don't go past the big heavy door with the NO METALS sign, or you get all the metal off you now, or both.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

not at all practical

Simple question: why?

You put in a metal detector, and hell, a second door that won't open if metal was detected. These aren't the costs compared to the cost of a single MRI machine.

[–] Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone 67 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (9 children)

Did no one else read the story? I read it and it sounds moreso the clinic's fault

The necklace he was wearing was a steel weighted exercise band, not a normal necklace. He's not flexing his wealth or anything

His wife told News 12 Long Island in a recorded interview that she was undergoing an MRI on her knee when she asked the technician to get her husband to help her get off the table. She said she called out to him.

Seems like the technician was told by the wife to bring her husband in to help her up. The technician/clinic made a mistake by letting in the husband, who didn't seem properly warned about MRIs no metal policy. The technician also somehow didn't catch the giant "necklace" he'd be wearing.

The "he wasn't supposed to be there" seems like a coverup for their mistake, since how else would he have known to go in? Someone must've told him to walk into the room, it's not like he could hear through the door.

Edit: 100% the technicians fault, the technician saw it. It even had a metal padlock.

They’d even discussed his training and the hard-to-miss chain with the MRI technician during their previous appointments, Jones-McAllister said.
“That was not the first time that guy has seen that chain” on her husband, she said. “They had a conversation about it before.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/long-island-man-killed-in-freak-mri-accident-was-wearing-20-pound-chain-necklace-with-padlock/ar-AA1IXop6

[–] zakobjoa@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm not saying it's the husband's fault, but I don't think it's 100% on the technician either.

I read it more like she asked the technician to get her husband and called out to her husband who presumably just walked in.

Also, "they discussed the chain on a previous visit" doesn't really change anything. Depending on how many people that technician sees and when that last visit was, they might've just forgotten.

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[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world 24 points 3 days ago

Thank the gods for you. I was reading these comments thinking I was insane.

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 209 points 4 days ago (14 children)

Dude was wearing a 20lb chain while his wife was getting an MRI.

She freaked, and yelled for him, and he ran into the room while the machine was still on and fucking died.

This is 100% their fault, I could almost see an argument that the door needs a lock to prevent idiots with 20l s of metal around their neck from running in, but you don't want to lock everyone out in case there's an issue.

[–] saimen@feddit.org 43 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Just for your information, the machine, meaning the magnet, is ALWAYS on.

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[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 59 points 4 days ago (12 children)

You could put an airlock like metal detector door that only opens the second door, if the first door is closed and there's nothing magnetic inside. People could still go in quickly in emergencies, but nothing that makes it worse can enter.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 56 points 4 days ago (5 children)

As much as the machines cost, something like that wired up with a metal detector so that if the machine is on and there's metal in the airlock it will never open would actually be a good solution....

But it would take a society that values human life and absence of suffering over money. Because like someone else pointed out, the hospital ain't the one paying to fix the machine.

Maybe Canada would be interested?

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[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 31 points 3 days ago (3 children)

The man, 61, had entered the MRI room while a scan was underway

How was that allowed?

he asked the technician to get her husband to help her get off the table.

...while the machine was still working? And isn't that the job of the technician anyway?

the technician helped her try to pull her husband off the machine but it was impossible.

Those machines have a kill-switch for a reason.

I call this BS or a very incompetent technician.
Plus a Darwin award for the guy.

[–] UnspecificGravity@lemmy.world 38 points 3 days ago (20 children)

Couple things:

The magnet is ALWAYS on.

The "kill switch" takes about five minutes to actually deactivate the magnet and it costs about thirty grand in helium every time you push it.

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[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 11 points 3 days ago

The kill switch is VERY expensive to press, many thousands of dollars, and even when it does an "instant" magnet quench, by the time you hear the screams it's all over anyway, the metal has landed on the magnet. Quenching the magnet will make it let go, but it won't unbreak the neck bones.

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

the high powered magnet is always on. it's never safe to put metal near and MRI.

[–] MadnessForTsar@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago (4 children)

9 kilograms Necklace?! What kind of necklace is that?

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[–] ook@discuss.tchncs.de 135 points 4 days ago (7 children)

I... want to see that 9 kg necklace. I mean, sounds like it's just a big-ass chain, but if so, how did it not throw up red flags all around letting this guy wear it around that machine.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 135 points 4 days ago (3 children)

It wasnt a necklace...

It was a literal metal chain, like steel. Not a gold cuban link chain or something with a huge medallion a rapper would wear.

Apparently this idiot just lived everyday with a 20lb length of chain around his neck for "weight training". The article mentions it was "a topic of discussion" on a prior visit, so it wasn't a one time thing.

The type of person to do that, is 100% the type of guy to run into an active MRI like he could do anything. Theres no logical thinking going on, and an outright refusal to listen to qualified medical advice. Like, they make weighted vests, at least do that instead of putting all that weight on your neck.

[–] Carnelian@lemmy.world 56 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Yeah, there was a guy in my town who would run around with one of these around his neck. Similar type of idiot. He would actually run by the strength training gym and gloat to us that we were wasting our time lol, insisting that all we had to do was run around with a big chain.

Hearing about this news story now I wonder if some influencer somewhere started a trend. People love feeling like they found “the secret”

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[–] SARGE@startrek.website 99 points 4 days ago (3 children)

how did it not throw up red flags all around letting this guy wear it around that machine.

He wasn't allowed in the room.

His wife panicked in the MRI, he charged into the room he was told not to go Into.

[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 64 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Imagine the scene from her POV. She's claustrophobic and having a meltdown because of all the hums and bangs and then her husband comes running in only to get pulled into the machine she is already stuck inside of. He's screaming and can't get pulled free while she is being pushed even harder into the machine she so desparately wants free from - by her husband who is quickly suffocating to death

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[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Carrying a 9kg necklace seems a bit silly. Though I suppose "for weight training" could just as well mean something medical, like needing to build up muscle mass after an operation.

What I need to know is: how is a man that was "not supposed to be in the room" specifically getting fetched by a technician to go into the room? I would have said "do not go past the antechamber" a dozen times on the way there. Did the wife calling out to him just turn off his brain, did the technician fail to inform him, or did they both not realise the metallic necklace was on him?

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (6 children)

After reading another article: nope, necklace was just a huge locket on a chain. And the wife said "Keith, Keith, come help me up" which sound to me like:

  • wife was making a big fuss for no good reason (might have had a reason according to a 3rd article)
  • husband obeyed as any good husband would
  • technician didn't inform the husband that his wife would be carted out of the MRI room and failed to react fast enough

If I was married and a bit dumber, I could probably also be lured to my death with my name being called out twice in that fashion. Really depends how good the signage was and how well the husband was informed.

[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 6 points 3 days ago

They have extensive screening and education and safeguard procedures, for the patients. I'm guessing hubby skipped (probably wasn't even offered) all those and just dashed in the door when called. Tech still should have put hubby through "the talk" if he was anywhere close to the door to the room.

MRI is one of the most sci-fi come to life technologies most people are likely to encounter in their lives. Superconducting magnets are about as non-intuitive as it gets, once they get you past the point of your ability to resist the force, there's no recovery - you're going faster and faster until the metal hits the housing. There have been multiple accidents with steel oxygen cylinders - for the obvious reason: they're so common in the environment where MRIs are used, and it's no small feat to get the cylinder removed.

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 6 points 3 days ago

hes going to have neck problems if he had lived, 20lbs on the neck will cause spinal deformities, and disc disease.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 23 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Surely 9kg necklace isn't something you can just sneak around with, how was he allowed to get close enough to an MRI machine in the first place wearing it?

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[–] negativenull@lemmy.world 122 points 4 days ago (21 children)
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[–] somewhiteguy@reddthat.com 61 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (10 children)

What kind of hospital let him get near the room with that kind of metal around his neck? I've had to be in several hospitals recently for different imaging issues and every time the MRI is a thing I have to remove everything metal to go past a certain door (escorting my daughter and son for medical reasons). I don't know who let him anywhere near the room with something that large.

Edit for Clarity: I've had to be the one removing all metal even though I'm not the one being scanned. For me to progress beyond a certain part of the hospital toward the MRI I needed to get rid of everything. My children were being scanned, not me. So, I'm not sure what hospital system allowed this man with a 9kg chain get this far deep into the imaging area.

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[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 63 points 4 days ago (14 children)

9 fucking kilograms!? For my fellow Americans, that’s almost 20 pounds!

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[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 40 points 4 days ago (4 children)

So many dumb ways to die...

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[–] WillFord27@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So glad to find that Lemmy is even less empathetic than reddit was. Real faith in humanity killer. Shocking how many people decided to comment without touching the article, really proud to be here..

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[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What an unfortunate chain of events

You son of a bitch lol

[–] obsolete@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

He didn't see the new Final Destination movie.

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