32-year-old man dies after getting sucked into MRI machine at Mumbai hospital

In an unfortunate incident, a 32-year-old man lost his life in a hospital in India's Mumbai city after being sucked into a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine (MRI) on Saturday evening (27 January).

According to Indian media reports, Rajesh Maru was pulled into an MRI machine after a hospital staff allegedly allowed him to enter the room with a metal oxygen cylinder.

Maru was attending an elderly relative, who had come to the BYL Nair Charitable Hospital for an MRI scan. Reports say a ward boy standing outside the room told Maru that it was okay to carry the oxygen cylinder.

Any metallic objects, such as pins, screws, jewellery, clothing with metallic fibres or threads, zippers, buttons, hooks, or underwire are not allowed inside the MRI room.

"When we told him that metallic things aren't allowed inside an MRI room, he said it's fine, we do it every day. He also said that the machine was switched off. The doctor, as well as the technician, didn't say anything," Maru's relative Harish Solanki was quoted as saying by NDTV.

But as soon as he entered the room, it turned out that the device was on. The machine's powerful magnetic force sucked in Maru, who was still holding the cylinder.

When the patient accompanying Maru cried for help, few ward boys rushed in and managed to pull him out. Although he was rushed to the emergency ward, the man succumbed to his injuries within minutes.

Naranbhai Jitiya, Maru's family member told DNA: "It is just because of the carelessness of hospital's doctors and technical carelessness.

"No security guard was present to tell him he should not carry an oxygen cylinder with him to an MRI room. It is the duty of the doctors and technicians to tell relatives what precautions to take."

According to Dr Ramesh Bharmal, dean of Nair Hospital, the management are investigating the incident.

"He was accompanying a patient. He took the patient to the MRI room where metal is not allowed. He took the oxygen cylinder. The magnetic force was heavy so he got pulled in. There are boards and signs put up that say you cannot carry metal inside. Instructions are given. We are conducting an inquiry. If anyone is found to be at fault, action will be taken. It seems like an accident. All instructions were given," Dr Bharmal said, according to CNN-News18.

A case has been registered and information from eyewitnesses and CCTV footage are being investigated, a senior police officer said.

"Dr Siddhant Shah who was the doctor on duty at the time of the incident, ward boy Vitthal Chavan and another hospital help Sunita Surve have been suspended till the preliminary inquiry is done," Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ramesh Bamble was quoted as saying.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced a compensation of INR 5 lakh (£5,554) for the family of the victim.