A 32-year-old man died after being sucked into an MRI in an apparent freak accident at a hospital in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, according to multiple reports.
Rajesh Maru had been in the MRI room with a female relative who was preparing to undergo a scan, News18 reported. He was holding the woman’s metal oxygen canister at the time while she was being transported to the machine.
Because MRI machines use extremely powerful magnets, no such metal objects can be in the room when one is powered up, according to the Hindustan Times.
Police say that Maru was sucked toward the cylinder, and the arm holding the oxygen canister became trapped. His fingers were apparently severed while attendants tried furiously to free him.
Maru inhaled lethal amounts of liquid oxygen that had begun leaking from the canister he’d been holding, according to an autopsy.
Three people, including a doctor, have been arrested on suspicion of causing death due to negligence, according to the Hindustan Times.
Still, Maru’s family is outraged at what they perceive to be the hospital shirking responsibility, and they complain that nobody stopped Maru from entering with the oxygen canister, according to the Indian Express.
It remained unclear whether the machine was already on, perhaps unnoticed, when Maru entered.
“We are finding out the exact sequence of events that led to the accident,” said Savalaram Agavane, a senior inspect of the Agripada police station.
This article originally appeared on Newser: Man Killed After Being Sucked Into MRI Machine
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