In a horrific incident that shocked New York and the entire US, a six-year-old boy was tragically killed by a flying oxygen cylinder during a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) examination.
The metal container, hurtling at 20 to 30 feet per second, shattered the skull of Michael Colombini, from Croton-On-Hudson, after being yanked in by the MRI’s massive 10-tonne electromagnet.
Michael tragically died two days following the devastating incident at Westchester Medical Center, located north of New York City, just an hour’s drive from where a 61-year-old man recently perished after being pulled into an MRI machine whilst wearing a heavy metal necklace at Nassau Open MRI in Westbury.
Investigators revealed Keith McAllister, who died on July 17, had approached the apparatus after his wife, who was having a scan, cried out for help.
Back in 2001, when Michael lost his life, the medical centre acknowledged the oxygen cylinder was “immediately magnetised and drawn to the centre of the machine, causing head trauma to the child.”, reports the Mirror.
An MRI scanner is a medical imaging apparatus that employs powerful magnetic fields and radio waves to produce intricate pictures of a patient’s internal body structure.
These scans enable doctors to diagnose and track numerous medical ailments.
Following anaesthetic administration, Michael was positioned inside one of these scanners for examination after having a non-cancerous brain tumour surgically removed.
Whilst inside the machines, his oxygen saturation readings started plummeting rapidly. Staff tried to rectify the situation using the suite’s in-built oxygen supply, but their efforts were fruitless.
In a fatal move, they decided to bring a portable steel oxygen tank into the room.
The magnetic pull was so powerful an anaesthesiologist had the canister yanked from their hands and drawn into the scanner, where it struck and ultimately killed young Michael.
In October 2009, Michael’s parents secured a $2.9 million legal settlement with Westchester County Health Care of Valhalla, as revealed by a New York court in 2010.
Over 500 mourners attended the six year old’s funeral, where his kindergarten teacher, Diana Heaton, remembered him as “an awesome kid who liked having fun,” adding “we’re all shocked and saddened by this.”
Approximately 100 hospital staff members attended a prayer service for Michael.
In a statement, the boy’s family expressed gratitude for ”the outpouring of public sympathy,” but requested privacy as they were ”unable to make any public remarks regarding the loss of their beloved son Michael” because they had ”just begun the grieving process.”As part of the 2009 settlement, all parties agreed not to comment on the accident or litigation, although none sought to seal the legal records.
Edward Stolzenberg, then-president and chief executive officer of the medical centre, stated at the time that the facility would “do anything it can to ease the family’s grief.” He added “The trauma was due to what can only be described as a horrific accident, and the entire medical centre is grieving.”