A 32-year-old man has died at a hospital in India after being sucked into an MRI chamber, according to reports.
The man, identified by local media as Rajesh Maruti Maru, had escorted his sister’s elderly mother-in-law to Mumbai’s BYL Nair Municipal Hospital when he suddenly got trapped in the machine while holding an oxygen tank, .
“Magnetic force of the machine sucked him in. We are not sure how he went so close. An inquiry is on,” Dr. Ramesh Bharmal told the news outlet.
Staffers, according to the report, claimed that the knob on the oxygen tank broke open when Maru was sucked into the chamber Saturday, causing the tank to leak.
Maru’s family says the man was holding the oxygen tank for his sister’s mother-in-law, who was scheduled to undergo an MRI scan — and a staffer had asked Maru to take the tank inside the MRI room, .
The family claims the staffer said the machine was switched off, but it was actually turned on. During an MRI exam, it is crucial that all metallic items are removed before entering the exam room.
“As soon as Rajesh entered with the cylinder, it turned out that the machine was on,” Maru’s relative, Harish Solanki, told NDTV.
Maru’s hand got stuck in the machine along with the oxygen tank.
Solanki and hospital staffers rushed to pull Maru’s bleeding body out of the machine before he was rushed to an emergency ward, where he died 10 minutes later, according to reports.
Solanki blamed hospital staffers for Maru’s death.
“It’s because of their carelessness that Rajesh died,” he said.
A postmortem indicated that Maru died as a result of pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung.
Police said hospital employees, including a doctor, Siddhant Shah, and Vitthal Chavan, the staffer who allowed Maru to enter the MRI room with the oxygen tank, have been arrested.