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Boy, six, killed in MRI horror as oxygen tank sucked into machine and fractured his skull

The incident took place just an hour's drive away from where a 61-year-old man wearing a heavy metal necklace was sucked into an MRI machine

[Patient entering Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner]

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The story has an eerie resemblance to a recent case involving Keith McAllister.(Image: Getty Images)

In a gruesome incident which rocked New York and America, a six-year-old child was killed by a flying oxygen tank during a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) exam.

The canister, travelling at 20 to 30 feet per second, fractured the skull of Michael Colombini, of Croton-On-Hudson, after it was drawn in by the MRIs 10-tonne electromagnet.

Michael sadly passed away two days after the incident, which took place at Westchester Medical Center, north of New York City, an hour's drive away from where a 61-year-old man recently died. He was sucked into an MRI machine while wearing a heavy metal necklace, at Nassau Open MRI in Westbury.

Investigators claim Keith McAllister, who died on July 17, had approached the machine after his wife, undergoing a scan, called for help.

In 2001, when Michael was killed, the medical facility confirmed the oxygen tank was "immediately magnetised and drawn to the centre of the machine, causing head trauma to the child."

[Keith McAllister ]

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Keith McAllister recently died after he was pulled into an MRI machine. (Image: News 12 Long Island)

An MRI machine is a medical imaging device that uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to create detailed pictures of the inside of a patient's body. These images help doctors diagnose and monitor various medical conditions.

After being anaesthetised, Michael was placed in one of these scanners for a check-up after having a benign brain tumour removed. While he was in the machine his oxygen saturation levels began dropping quickly.

Staff attempted to fix the levels with the suite's built-in oxygen supply, but to no avail, so they made the fatal decision to bring a portable steel oxygen tank into the room.

The magnetic pull was so strong that, upon receiving the tank at the doorway, an anaesthesiologist had the cannister ripped from their grip and into the scanner, were it struck and eventually killed Michael.

Michael's parents reached a $2.9 million legal settlement with Westchester County Health Care of Valhalla in October 2009, a New York court disclosed in 2010.

[Man Receiving Medical MRI Scan for Prostate Cancer Diagnosis]

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Michael was undergoing MRI tests after having a brain tumour removed.(Image: Getty Images)

More than 500 people attended the six-year-old's funeral, at which his kindergarten teacher, Diana Heaton, described him as being "an awesome kid who liked having fun," adding "we're all shocked and saddened by this."

Around 100 employees at the hospital attended a prayer service for Michael.

In a statement, the boy's family acknowledged ''the outpouring of public sympathy," but asked for privacy at the time 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 aforementioned 2009 settlement, the parties agreed not to comment on the accident or litigation, though none sought to seal the legal records.

At the time, Edward Stolzenberg, then-president and chief executive officer of the medical centre, claimed 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."

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