Long Island man wearing chain necklace gets sucked into MRI machine

David Matthews, New York Daily News on Jul 17, 2025

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NEW YORK — A Long Island man was critically injured Wednesday when he was sucked into an MRI machine by the chain necklace he was wearing.

The incident happened at Nassau Open MRI in Westbury around 4:30 p.m. when the 61-year-old man entered an MRI suite without permission while a scan was in progress, according to Nassau County police.

He was “wearing a large metallic chain around his neck causing him to be drawn into the machine which resulted in a medical episode,” police said Thursday.

The man, whose identity has not been released, was taken to a hospital, where he remained in critical condition with unknown injuries on Thursday. It remains unclear how he gained access to the room while the MRI machine was active, but an investigation is ongoing.

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines use powerful magnets and radio waves, instead of radiation, to create detailed images of the body’s internal structures. Metallic objects are not supposed to be near the machines since the magnetic field can turn any metal object into a projectile.

“The magnetic field extends beyond the machine and exerts very powerful forces on objects of iron, some steels and other magnetizable objects; it is strong enough to fling a wheelchair across the room,” according to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.