How a routine neck exam turned into a nightmare

Imagine: you go to the hospital with a simple neck ache. The doctor says, “We’ll do an MRI now, 20 minutes, and then you’re home.”

You lie down on the table, your head is fixed, a mask is on your face, the machine hums… and suddenly, silence. Half an hour passes, an hour, two—no one comes.

You shout, “Hey, doctor! Is that it? Can I go out?”—but the only answer is an echo in the empty room. And so began a true nightmare for Mr. Tang from Wuhan.

It happened on February 26, 2026, at Tongji Hospital (affiliated with Huazhong University of Science and Technology).

A man came in for a neck exam. The doctor performing the scan received an urgent call from management, left, and told her shift, “There’s a patient inside.”

But the system noted that the exam was complete. The colleagues thought it was all over; the patient had been released. They simply went home. But Tan remained strapped in, lying inside the machine in complete darkness and silence.

He was afraid to move: he thought the machine was still running, and any movement could cause harm (you really can’t move in an MRI, and the fear was real).

Then he started screaming and calling for help. For six hours straight. His wife waited and waited at home—then she called the police: “My husband disappeared after the hospital!”

The police arrived, and hospital security said, “He left a long time ago.” But in fact, he was still there. Only in the morning did a cleaning lady come in for her shift, hear faint screams coming from the office, and call security.

Tan was pulled out; he was in shock but fortunately physically unharmed. The hospital immediately apologized, conducted a full medical examination of the patient, and suspended two employees.

These stories are terrifying as hell: a routine situation, human error—and a person trapped for six hours, alone with fear and claustrophobia.

Sources: Tongji Hospital official statement, Mothership.sg—March 2026.