McAllister died on Thursday, July 17, one day after the tragic accident at Nassau Open MRI on Old Country Road, according to Nassau County Police.
Officers responded around 4:34 p.m. on Wednesday, July 16, for a 911 call reporting a medical emergency during an MRI scan. McAllister entered the room while a scan was underway, wearing a large metallic chain, which triggered the powerful machine to pull him in, according to police detectives. He suffered multiple heart attacks and later died at the hospital, they explained to the press.
But McAllister’s family says he was not “unauthorized” to enter the room, as initially suggested. In a GoFundMe launched by his stepdaughter, Samantha Bodden, the family claims a technician retrieved McAllister to assist his wife, who had just completed a scan for a knee injury.
“They had seen the chain before,” his wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, said in an interview with News 12 Long Island. “In that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in, and he hit the MRI.”
She described the traumatic moment she and the technician tried for several minutes to free her husband, pleading with staff to “turn this damn thing off” as he went limp in her arms.
McAllister, who lived on a fixed income from Social Security, is remembered as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and friend, the family said. As of Thursday, July 18, more than $700 had been raised toward the $11,000 goal to cover his funeral costs.
“He was on a fixed income and didn’t have much,” Bodden wrote. “At this time, my mother is asking for help with expenses to help bury him.”
The investigation remains ongoing, Nassau County police said.
Click here to donate to the GoFundMe.
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