Lawyer Dies After Shot By His Own Concealed Gun Triggered By MRI Machine

Don’t bring a gun into a room with an MRI machine. Just don’t.

Otherwise, what tragically happened to a 40-year-old lawyer, Leandro Mathias de Novaes, could happen to you. On January 16, the lawyer allegedly brought a gun concealed on his waist into the room where his mother was going to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the Laboratorio Cura in São Paulo, Brazil. The magnetic field generated by the MRI machine then reportedly caused the gun to discharge a shot right into his abdomen, as described by Folha De S.Paulo. This led to major injuries and his being rushed to the São Luiz Morumbi Hospital. But unfortunately, the damage to his body was already so great that the lawyer ended up on dying on February 6.

There’s a reason why you’re told to remove all metal objects before entering a room where a MRI machine is located. The “M” stands for “magnetic” because the large tube-shaped machine can generate a powerful magnetic field, much more powerful than the fields created by the magnets on your refrigerator door. In fact, the MRI scanner can produce a magnetic field that’s 140,000 times the strength of the earth’s magnetic field, according to GE. The “I” stands for “imaging” because that’s the whole purpose of a medical MRI machine, to generate intricate pictures of your anatomy. These images can then help show how your body is working and diagnose various types of problems. The magnetic field is central to how these images are created.

The magnetic field first causes the protons in your body to align with that field, sort of like what happens to people when they announce at a wedding that they are going to do the Electric Slide. Then the machine sends bursts of radio waves into selected parts of your body that in turn knock various proportions of your protons out of alignment. After these radio waves are stopped, each of the protons then snap back to their original alignment, releasing radio signals as a result. The amount of radio signals released from a given part of the body depends on the number of protons there and the speeds at which they go back to their original alignment. Sensors on the MRI machine can detect these released radio signals and subsequently translate them into detailed computer images of your anatomy.

Yeah, any magnet powerful enough to pull your protons into alignment is going to be powerful enough to make metallic objects go flying in different directions. The following video from the practiCal fMRI YouTube channel gives you a sense of how powerful this magnetic field can be:

That’s why you are asked to leave your metal jewelry, forks, spoons, keys, staplers, fountain pens, chains, crowbars, zippers, xylophones, cymbals, anvils, flame throwers, air fryers, harpoons, tridents, and, yes, guns before entering a room with a MRI machine.

But apparently, the lawyer did not heed such requests. In fact, according to Beatriz Gabriele, Carolina Figueiredo, and Gabriel Fernedada reporting for CNN Brazil, even though the lawyer did sign a form agreeing to follow all protocols, he did not reveal to the personnel at the Laboratorio Cura that he was still carrying the concealed weapon into the room. As Ben Cost reported for the New York Post, a spokesperson for Laboratorio Cura released a statement that said, “Both the patient and his companion were properly instructed regarding the procedures for accessing the examination room and warned about the removal of any and all metallic objects.” The facility’s spokesperson emphasized that the lawyer had not mentioned his gun and entered the area with the MRI machine “by his own decision.”

There should be no reason to bring a gun into an MRI room. Chances are the radiology techs or the MRI machine won’t jump you while you are in the room. If you do get into a fight with a MRI machine, the MRI machine will probably win. As they say, don’t bring a gun to a fight with a giant magnetic field.