A 32-year-old man died after being sucked into an MRI machine at BYL Nair Municipal Hospital in Mumbai, India. Rajesh Maruti Maru was accompanying his sister’s mother-in-law into the MRI room when he was trapped in the machine while holding the elderly relative’s oxygen tank. After Maru’s body was pulled out, he was taken to the emergency room, where he died 10 minutes later.
Objects containing metal aren’t permitted inside MRI rooms. Maru’s family claimed that hospital staff assured them the machine was off, when it was actually on. "Magnetic force of the machine sucked him in. We are not sure how he went so close. An inquiry is on," the hospital’s Dean Dr. Ramesh Bharmal told the Indian Express.
The oxygen tank mobilized the MRI’s large magnetic field, which powerfully drew in both Maru and the tank, and caused an enormous oxygen leak. "As soon as Rajesh entered with the cylinder, it turned out that the machine was on," Maru’s relative, Harish Solanki, told NDTV. "It’s because of their carelessness that Rajesh died."
The family claimed the incident is a case of negligence and place hospital staff at fault for his death. According to the New York Post, Maru died from pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung.
Police have registered a case against three hospital employees, Dr. Siddhant Shah, and staffers Vitthal Chavan and Sunita Surve. Shah and Chavan have also been arrested. The hospital is overseeing an inquiry into the incident, while local lawmaker Mangal Prabhat Lodha—from the political party Bharatiya Janata Party—has requested compensation and serious action be taken for the death of Rajesh Maruti Maru.
