It wasn’t the first New York death to result from an MRI machine. In 2001, a six-year-old child from Croton-on-Hudson was killed at the Westchester Medical Center when an oxygen tank flew into the chamber, drawn in by the MRI’s 10-ton electromagnet. In 2010, records filed in Westchester County revealed that the family settled a lawsuit for $2.9m.

A man died last week after being pulled into an MRI machine by a “large metallic chain” police said he was wearing around his neck – highlighting the importance of checking for any metallic objects before going near the powerful magnets used in the medical imaging machines.

The Long Island man who was killed in a freak MRI machine accident was sporting a staggering 20-pound chain necklace adorned with a padlock at the time of the tragedy, his grieving wife said. Keith McAllister,