Indian man dies after being sucked into an MRI machine while carrying an oxygen cylinder

Matthew Diebel | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Man dies after being sucked into an MRI machine in Mumbai A man in Mumbai, India, died after reportedly being sucked into an MRI machine.

An Indian man died when he was sucked into an MRI machine after he entered the room with an oxygen cylinder, according to local media reports.

Rajesh Maru, 32, had accompanied a female relative, Laxmi Solanki, to the Nair Municipal Hospital in Mumbai for a test while carrying the cylinder, which the woman had been using. As he went into the MRI room, the high-powered magnets in the machine drew him into the chamber and he overdosed on oxygen when the cylinder leaked, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

“The magnetic force of the machine sucked him in,” a hospital official, Ramesh Bharmal, told the paper about the Saturday incident. “We are not sure how he went so close. An inquiry is on.”

Staffers, the Express reported, said the cylinder’s valve broke open when Maru was pulled in, causing a sudden flow of oxygen.

The Times of India reported that police on Sunday arrested a doctor, Saurabh Lanjrekar, a ward assistant, Vithal Chavan, and an attendant, Sunita Surve, charging them with negligence.

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Harish Solanki, Maru’s brother-in-law, told the Times that he blamed Chavan for asking the family to take the oxygen cylinder into the MRI room despite being asked by another staffer to remove all metallic objects such as belts, wallets and pins." MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging.



"We hesitated and my niece Priyanka even mentioned that the cylinder was metallic,” Solanki told the paper. “But the ward (assistant) said the machine wasn't on. Maru took the cylinder in, which was sucked toward the machine by its magnetic force. Maru got dragged along."

Solanki told New Delhi TV that he and a medical assistant managed to pull Maru out of the machine, but his body was swollen and he was bleeding heavily. He was rushed to an emergency ward where he was pronounced dead, the station reported.