A police investigation is blaming an attendant for negligence in the death of a 32-year-old man in an MRI accident at Nair Hospital in Mumbai, India, last January.
According to a November 5 report in the Times of India, police expect to file charges this week against Vitthal Chavan, who was on duty as a ward boy -- or attendant -- when the incident occurred. Chavan allegedly asked Rajesh Maruti Maru to carry a metal oxygen tank into the MRI suite where his mother-in-law was about to undergo a scan.
According to police, Chavan was told the cylinder was metal, but he said the machine was off. However, the scanner was functioning, and the magnet drew Maru and the tank into the bore, where the metal cylinder broke and began emitting oxygen. Maru inhaled the exposed gas and died shortly thereafter of complications from pneumothorax.
The scanner was repaired and returned to service on a limited basis in late October.
