Mumbai hospital staffer likely facing new charges in man's MRI-related death

Police investigating the death of 32-year-old Rajesh Maru—who was sucked into an MRI machine at Nair Hospital in Mumbai, India, in January—are expected to bring new charges against Nair employee Vitthal Chavan, 35, for Maru’s death after allowing him to enter the MRI room with a metallic oxygen cylinder, according to a Nov. 5 report by The Times of India.  

Mumbai police plan to submit Chavan’s charge sheet in a week, according to the report.  

On Jan. 27, Maru came to Nair Hospital to visit his brother-in-law's sick mother. When Maru and his brother-in-law reached the MRI ward, they were asked by an attendant to remove all metallic objects from their person.  

Maru who was then told by Chavan to take an oxygen cylinder to his sick relative, entered the MRI room and was yanked toward the machine by its magnetic force. Chavan had assured Maru the MRI was switched off and allowed him to enter the room with the metallic cylinder, according to Mumbai police reports. 

Maru died within 10 minutes from a collapsed lung after inhaling an excessive amount of oxygen from the cylinder, according to Maru’s postmortem report. Nair doctors Saurabh Lanjrekar, 24, and Siddhant Shah and staff attendant Sunita Surve, 35, were also arrested in January with Chavan under Section 304A of the Indian penal code for causing death under negligence, but were later released on bail, according to the article.  

Read The Times of India's entire article below. 

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A recent graduate from Dominican University (IL) with a bachelor’s in journalism, Melissa joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering all aspects of health imaging. She’s a fan of singing and playing guitar, elephants, a good cup of tea, and her golden retriever Cooper.

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