An Arizona inmate was left with excruciating burns after being sucked into an MRI machine when a technician told a prison guard not to remove the metal shackles around her waist.
In the horrific incident, Lacey Windust, 38, was at a SimonMed Imaging Center in Avondale when a technician told the guard not to remove the handcuffs from her waist, sending her flying toward the MRI machine and getting stuck in the hole.
The incident took place in May 2022, but photos have only recently been released, showing the extent of Windust’s injuries.
The images showed a deep cut on her hand that required stitches, bruising and marks from where the metal shackles were pulled into her body.
Windust, who has been in prison for forgery since 2012 and is currently in the Arizona State Prison complex in Perryville, described the pain as ‘halving’ her sister in a letter.
MRIs, which stand for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves to generate images of organs in the body. They are known to be 30,000 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field.
Lacey Windust, 38, was in an Imaging Center at SimonMed when a technician told the guard not to remove the handcuffs, causing her to fly toward the MRI machine and get stuck in the hole.
She wrote: “As I approached the car about three to four feet away … the magnet flew from my feet up into the air and threw me into the car, up into the circular hole.”
In a separate report, the jailer wrote that the SimonMed tech asked him to go in and help Lacey after she was inhaled, but he too ended up stuck in the MRI machine because of his gun.
Windust, who has been in prison for forgery since 2012 and is currently in the Arizona State Prison complex in Perryville, described the pain as ‘halving’ her sister in a letter.
The images showed a deep cut on her hand that required stitches, bruising and marks from where the metal handcuffs pulled on her body
It is not known if the guard suffered any injuries or why Windust was getting an MRI scan
It is not known if the guard suffered any injuries or why Windust was getting an MRI scan.
Jail records show the guard removed Windust’s leg cuffs, asked the technician if they should remove his waist cuffs, to which he replied, ‘No. They should be fine’.
MRI security expert Tobias Gilk, who is familiar with the details in the case, said: “We have two people trapped and injured due to the failure to control or effectively control access to this area.”
“The problem is that there are so few regulations or standards regarding what constitutes minimum appropriate training in an MRI provider.
From a regulatory standpoint, MRI security is truly the wild, wild west. So I would ask who are they regulated by?
“I would describe it as a pretty catastrophic failure. All of these things suggest that best practices were not followed,” Gilk said.
The incident took place in May 2022, but only recently have pictures been released showing the extent of Windust’s injuries.
She wrote: “As I approached the car about three to four feet away … the magnet flew from my feet up into the air and threw me into the car, up into the circular hole.”
The lab’s own incident report said employees stayed with the chief engineer, who advised them to wait until he arrived on the scene.
ABC15 was able to investigate why state regulators were unable to investigate or take enforcement action.
Many SimonMed locations, including the one where the accident occurred, are not currently licensed or regulated by the state health department due to an exemption.
The Arizona Department of Health Services regulates and licenses imaging centers, but records show SimonMed, one of the nation’s largest imaging centers, is not registered with them.
The laboratory classifies itself as a private provider and under ADHS Web pageprivate providers are exempt from licensing only if they are owned by a physician or physicians who treat patients at the clinic.
This was why a whole year passed before any investigation was made into how and why the accident happened.
The channel also revealed that even though Windust and the guard continued to scream for help, it was several minutes before someone hit the emergency shut-off button.
The lab’s own incident report said employees stayed with the chief engineer, who had advised them to wait until he arrived on the scene.
The Arizona Department of Corrections confirmed the incident but blamed the lab.
“This secondary medical situation and the resulting injuries were caused by errors made by staff in the imaging lab,” the agency said in a statement.
The channel also revealed that even though Windust and the guard continued to scream for help, it was several minutes before someone hit the emergency shut-off button.
The Arizona Department of Health Services regulates and licenses imaging centers, but records show SimonMed, one of the nation’s largest imaging centers, is not registered with them.
The lab classifies itself as a private provider, and according to the ADHS website, private providers are only exempt from licensure if they are owned by a physician or physicians who treat patients at the clinic.
SimonMed operates more than 60 imaging centers across Arizona, but a search for its license on the health department’s website showed “no registration.”
After the incident, ADHS has started examining the ‘reasons’ for excluding the laboratory from registration.
Regarding the accident, SimonMed told ABC15: “Every incident that occurs is fully investigated and all such incidents are reported to the appropriate regulatory agencies and accrediting bodies, in accordance with the obligations imposed under HIPAA and other state and federal laws and regulations.”
Gilk explained that MRI best practices include screening patients for metal before they ever enter an MRI room since MRI machines act as very strong magnets.
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Female Arizona inmate is left with horrific burns after technician told her prison guard not to remove the metal shackles around her waist – causing her to be SUCKED into the MRI machine
