Man Killed After Being Sucked Into MRI Machine

An Indian man was killed Saturday after being sucked into an MRI machine at a Mumbai Hospital, according to Indian news broadcaster NDTV.

The man, Rajesh Maru, 32, was helping an elderly relative at BYL Nair Charitable Hospital when he entered the MRI room with a metal oxygen tank. An MRI machine is a powerful tool used to create medical imaging of human anatomies using strong magnetic fields and radio waves. Metal objects are supposed to be removed when an MRI is in use.

A hospital employee described as a “ward boy” told Maru that it was fine to bring the tank inside and that the MRI machine was off. When Maru and his brother-in-law Harish Solanki resisted, citing the danger, the employee, Vitthal Chavan, said: “It's fine, we do it every day.”

When Maru entered the room, the MRI machine was still on and the man was pulled toward it with “great force.”

“He went there to visit my ailing mother. A ward boy told him to carry an oxygen cylinder with him to MRI room which is prohibited. It all happened because of the carelessness of hospital's doctors and administration. No security guard was either present to tell him that he should not carry oxygen cylinder with him to MRI room,” Solanki told Asia News International.

After hitting the machine Maru’s body entire body was swollen and he began bleeding profusely, according to NDTV. Maru was taken to the emergency room where he died shortly after.

Police on Sunday arrested Chavan, the attending doctor Siddhant Shah and ward attendant Sunita Surve in connection with the death, according to the New Indian Express.

The hospital is also investigating the incident.