Episode 9 begins the final installment, Act 3, of "The Invisible Force" podcast on the AuntMinnie Podcast Network. Hosts and MRI safety experts Tobias "Toby" Gilk and John Posh start with another shocker.
This episode reveals that the Nassau Open MRI involved in a fatal accident July 16, 2025, is what is sometimes referred to as a “P.I.”, or personal injury, imaging provider. This means the imaging center gets a bulk of its business at the direction of personal injury attorneys.
"What [the imaging center] didn’t do at the behest of attorneys, they did for fully cash-pay patients; no insurance was accepted whatsoever, not even Medicare or Medicaid," Posh explained, highlighting the imaging center's freedom from accreditation and safety requirements as a cash-pay provider. Additionally, for an outpatient imaging center, the state where the facility was located has no oversight under business licensing provisions, according to Posh.
Internal upheaval?
There was also some evidence that the company was "coming apart at the seams," Gilk said. Episode 9 picks through the business arrangements -- including a lawsuit -- leading up to the 2025 incident after which Keith McAllister died.
Gilk and Posh iterate three key facts:
- Adrienne Jones-McAllister, who was there that fateful day for a knee MRI, had received services there prior to the accident and had been accompanied by her husband, Keith McAllister.
- July 16, 2025, wasn't the first time Keith McAllister had been to the imaging center, either with or wearing an oversized chain along the likes of Flavor Flav's.
- It took nearly an hour to free Mr. McAllister from the magnet.
"The MRI technologist acknowledged knowing this, saying that he told Mr. McAllister that the chain would have to come off and get stored in their car if he had any thoughts of going into the MRI scanner room," Posh explained. Statements from the tech imply that Mr. McAllister took off the chain but then put it back on a short while later, according to Posh.
An important and still unanswered question: what button was pushed to quench the magnet, when, and where was it located? Episode 9 pieces together the rest of the scene at the MRI trailer as a team of people frantically attempted to free Mr. McAllister from that heavy-duty chain around his neck that kept him pinned him to the scanner.
Since the accident
McAllister, who accompanied his wife to the facility that day, died not long after the magnet released its grip. The second half of the episode takes listeners from this point to the present day.
"The fact that [Keith McAllister] died of a heart attack actually tells us very little about his injuries from the chain around his neck, other than that they were pretty significant," explained Gilk.
A GoFundMe account soon followed McAllister's death. Attorneys became involved, but more consequential developments were less apparent, and official information has remained scarce over the many months following the incident, Posh added.
Not even Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests for incident records could rouse public authorities to provide any information about their investigation or their findings, other than "cryptic" responses and "false confidentiality claims," Posh and Gilk noted during the episode. As of April 20, still nothing, they lamented, but information has been promised by early June.
Tying it all together
Episode 9 also explores details around the imaging center ceasing operations and the MRI scanner's and premises' availability for inspection up until that point.
"Most modern MRI scanners keep essentially an ‘audit trail’ of just about everything that the MRI machine does," Gilk explained. Although for the episode he speculates a sequence of events based on that possible digital trail, he emphasized that the facts have not been disclosed.
Nassau Open MRI appears to now go by the name "Red Tree Radiology" (refer to Episode 8). A lawsuit -- filed by the family -- has since named Nassau Open MRI, their landlord (GM Partners Westbury), East Coast Radiology, and Sun Enterprises. Another complaint -- between imaging business associates -- has made claims of "destruction of evidence" by Nassau Open MRI from the MRI accident. Episode 9 ties it all together.
At nearly one year after the event, the presumptive cause of the incident appears to have gotten simpler, but the litigation is more complex than ever. Listen now.
Editor's note: The imaging community and other listeners have been invited to contribute to the investigation through The Invisible Force Tip Line -- 631-MRI-TIPS (631-674-8477).
Host
Tobias "Toby" Gilk is the founder of Gilk Radiology Consulting. An architect by training, he has spent over 20 years focusing on MRI safety, initially through the architecture and planning of MRI facilities, but growing into the technology, clinical practice, regulation, and economics of MRI safety. Gilk holds both MR Safety Officer (MRSO) and MR Safety Expert (MRSE) certifications from the American Board of Magnetic Resonance Safety (ABMRS). An evaluator of serious reportable events (SRE), he is also a volunteer member of the Technical Expert Panel (TEP) of the National Quality Forum, and co-author of "The Technologist MRI Safety Handbook."
Co-host
John Posh is an MRI educator, safety consultant, and safety auditor with over 35 years of experience in the field of MRI safety and education, working with outpatient facilities, hospitals, and universities. He owns Posh Education in Bethlehem, PA, and currently serves as global director of education and training for Aspect Imaging, chief academic officer-MRI at John Patrick University, and adjunct professor of medical imaging at Rush University.
This episode of "The Invisible Force" is brought to you by AuntMinnie and the AuntMinnie Podcast Network. You can also find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Check out AuntMinnie's full podcast library, including extras, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
