Wife Of Freak MRI Accident Victim Retains Lawyers

WESTBURY, NY — The wife of Keith McAllister, the man who died when he was pulled into an active MRI machine in Nassau County, has retained Ben Crump, the nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney.

Adrienne Jones-McAllister also retained New York State Trial Lawyers President Andrew Finkelstein.

McAllister, 61, of Hempstead was at the Open MRI Nassau facility in Westbury, accompanying his wife, who was undergoing a scan of her knee on Wednesday, July 16.

According to the family, the technician asked Keith to enter the room and help her off the machine. As he stepped into the scan room wearing a heavy metallic training chain around his neck, the machine’s powerful magnetic field violently yanked the chain, pulling McAllister into the device, police said.

McAllister suffered traumatic injuries and lost consciousness in his wife’s arms.

As she told News 12, "He waved to goodbye to me, and then his whole body went limp."

“This horrific and entirely preventable tragedy underscores the critical importance of safety protocols in medical facilities. Keith McAllister should be alive today. No one, especially someone simply accompanying their loved one, should be exposed to fatal danger in a medical setting," Crump said in a statement. "We demand full transparency into what happened that day and accountability from all responsible parties. The McAllister family deserves answers, and we will fight to ensure they receive justice and that this never happens to another family."

Despite desperate attempts by his wife and the technician to remove him, McAllister remained pinned to the machine for nearly an hour before emergency personnel arrived, the lawyer's release said.

McAlllister died the next day at a local hospital after suffering several heart attacks.

Deaths connected to an MRI machine are extremely rare, but a few have been documented over the years. In 2001, a young boy was killed in Westchester County when the powerful magnetic field sent a metal oxygen tank flying across the room, crushing the six-year-old, ABC News reported.

The family's GoFundMe fundraiser has been disabled, despite living on a "fixed income from social security and didn’t have much," the description said.