A widow from Long Island has initiated a wrongful death legal action following her husband’s death in a devastating incident at an MRI center, claiming personnel neglected to have him take off his 20-pound metal chain before he was forcefully dragged into the device’s intense magnetic force.
Adrienne Jones-McAllister initiated the legal action on Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Nassau County against Nassau Open MRI P.C. on Old Country Road in Westbury, where her husband Keith McAllister, 61, died from his injuries after the July 16, 2025 occurrence.
The legal filing claims that a technician at the Westbury location called McAllister into the MRI room to assist his wife off the scanning table but neglected to direct him to take off his heavy metal necklace—a 20-pound chain with a large lock that he utilized for weight training. The chain got caught in the machine’s exceptionally strong magnetic field, pulling McAllister into the equipment with extreme force.
Jones-McAllister, who was at the location to have images of her knee taken, saw the entire tragedy happen while still on the scanning table inside the mobile MRI trailer attached to the building. According to multiple sources, she and the technician attempted for several minutes to free her husband before calling police. He stayed attached to the machine for almost an hour before emergency responders could release the chain.
When first responders finally freed McAllister from the MRI equipment, they transported him to the hospital in critical condition. He had experienced multiple heart attacks as a result of the incident and died the following afternoon on July 17, according to Nassau County police.
In a devastating detail shared with local media, Jones-McAllister recalled watching helplessly as the machine pulled her husband in. “He waved goodbye to me and his whole body went limp,” she said through tears.
The widow has identified what she considers was a serious breach in safety protocols. She told News 12 Long Island that technicians at the facility were already familiar with her husband’s distinctive chain. “That was not the first time that guy has seen that chain,” Jones-McAllister said. “They had a conversation about it before.”
The legal filing names several defendants beyond Nassau Open MRI P.C. East Coast Radiology P.C., which had a contract with the Westbury facility to use its MRI machine, is also listed in the complaint. Sun Enterprises, an LLC that leased the facility, and GM Partners Westbury LLC, which owned the property, face allegations as well.
Jones-McAllister’s legal team includes attorney Andrew Finkelstein of Jacoby & Meyers and the Ben Crump Law. The amount of damages sought has not been publicly disclosed.
The legal filing details the severe psychological trauma Jones-McAllister suffered as she watched the accident unfold. According to court documents, she “witnessed and was totally aware through all of her senses of the injuries and suffering and eventual death of her husband.”
The legal action alleges that Jones-McAllister has experienced “severe and serious personal, psychological and emotional injuries” resulting in “permanent effects of pain, disability, disfigurement and loss of body function” as a consequence of witnessing her husband’s death.
The legal filing outlines a series of alleged failures by the facility: allowing Keith McAllister into the MRI room without proper screening, failing to instruct him to remove the chain, not shutting down the machine before he entered, and not activating emergency procedures once he became trapped.
MRI machines produce exceptionally powerful magnetic fields that can attract metal objects with devastating force. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering notes that these magnets can exert enough force “to fling a wheelchair across the room.” Metal items left on or near patients can be violently pulled toward the equipment at high speed, causing catastrophic injuries or death.
Due to these dangers, patients and anyone entering an MRI suite must remove all metal objects before approaching the scanning room. Screening patients and visitors for metal represents a fundamental and non-negotiable safety standard at medical facilities across the country.
McAllister, who lived on a fixed income from Social Security, is remembered by family as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and friend. His stepdaughter, Samantha Bodden, set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover burial costs, writing that “he was on a fixed income and didn’t have much.”
Nassau Open MRI has refused to comment on the lawsuit or the circumstances surrounding the incident. The case now proceeds through Nassau County’s court system, where Jones-McAllister seeks accountability for what her attorneys have called “a preventable incident” that claimed her husband’s life and left her dealing with profound grief and psychological wounds the complaint describes as permanent.
