I found a NY Times article, which starts out:

A man who entered an M.R.I. room during a scan in Westbury, N.Y., on Wednesday was pulled into the machine by his chain necklace and was hospitalized in critical condition, the authorities said.

The man, who is 61, was wearing a “large metallic chain” around his neck when he entered the room at Nassau Open MRI around 4:34 p.m., according to the Nassau County Police Department, on Long Island. The man, whom the police did not name, did not have authorization to enter the room, the authorities said.

The former. He was never meant to enter that room while the MRI was being conducted for another patient.

I had the same complaint/confusion, thankfully elucidated by others' earlier replies.

I conclude that this ABC journalist, Meredith Deliso, is simply incompetent and ill-suited to her profession, lacking talent and verve for clarity of expression. Fuckin' typical.

The "while the scan was in progress" part made it pretty clear to me that he was someplace that he wasn't supposed to be.

However, "unauthorized Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) room" also very clearly states that the room itself did not have proper authorization.

My guess is that it failed to get authorization due to the lack of electronic door locks that prevent people from wandering in while the machine is hot. /s

Context clues help. What’s more likely - someone walking into a room they weren’t supposed to, or some place trying to covertly use a $500k-$1 million multi-ton machine whose operation is anything but discrete.