GoFundMe Started For Black Man Killed After Being Sucked Into MRI Machine

The family of a Black man who died after being sucked into an MRI machine in  Westbury, New York, has launched a GoFundMe page to cover funeral costs and other expenses.

According to News 12 Long Island, on July 16, 61-year-old Keith McAllister was at Nassau Open MRI with his wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, who was there having her knee examined. Jones-McAllister told News 12 that she needed help getting up from the MRI machine and asked the technician to call her husband to assist her off the table, which she said the technician did. Unfortunately, McAlister was wearing his 20-pound chain, which his wife said he uses for weight training.

“That was not the first time that guy has seen that chain,” Jones-McAllister said. “They had a conversation about it before.”

According to BIN News, Nassau County police reported that “a large metallic chain around his neck, causing him to be drawn into the machine,” which Jones-McAllister confirmed.

“At that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in, and he hit the MRI,” she recalled, adding that she and the technician tried to pull her husband away from the machine.

“I’m saying, ‘Could you turn off the machine? Call 911. Do something. Turn this damn thing off!’” she said.

McAllister died from his injuries the next day after reportedly suffering a heart attack.

However, where the accounts of police and the victim’s wife diverge centers around whether McAllister entered the MRI room unauthorized “while the scan was in progress,” or he came in at his wife’s and the technician’s request, as Jones-McAllister said. In fact, the police department’s report directly contradicts Jones-McAllister, claiming McAllister defied orders to stay out of the MRI room after hearing a “relative screaming during a scan.”

It’s unclear who the responding police officers obtained their information from, and why their account differs so significantly from that of Jones-McAlister, who, obviously, was present when it happened. What we do know is that MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines have strong magnetic fields, which is why technicians are required to have patients remove all removable metal from their bodies before going into the MRI room. Jones-McAllister claims the technician forgot to have her husband do so before he entered the room.

Either way, this was a senseless and avoidable tragedy, and one that is still under investigation.

“He went limp in my arms, and this is still pulsating in my brain,” his wife said. “I haven’t been able to sleep. I’m barely eating. I just can’t believe. I’m just trying to wrap my head around the whole thing.”

Samantha Bodden, who identified herself as Jones-McAllister’s daughter, noted on the GoFundMe page she launched that McAlister “was on a fixed income from social security and didn’t have much,” which is why she started the fundraiser. As of Wednesday morning, the page has raised nearly $10,000 in donations.

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