Durban — A man who was recently crushed by a stack of sugar cane weighing approximately 7 tons is recovering in hospital.
At the time of the incident, IPSS Medical Rescue managing director Dylan Meyrick said IPSS Medical Rescue alongside IPSS Search and Rescue received reports of a farming accident in the Isnembe area.
He said on the arrival of paramedics and rescue personnel, it was established that the farmworker had become entrapped under a stack of sugar cane weighing approximately 7 tons.
“The man was extricated from beneath the sugar cane with the use of cranes and was then stabilised by IPSS Medical Rescue advanced life support paramedics,” Meyrick said.
“Due to the critical nature of the injuries sustained the man was airlifted to a level one trauma facility by the Netcare 911 helicopter.”
Speaking to the Daily News on Sunday, Meyrick said the man who was crushed by a stack of sugar cane on Wednesday was moved out of the intensive care unit and taken into a normal ward.
“He is actually doing really well. But he’s got a number of fractures so it will be a while, but he is doing much much better,” Meyrick said.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident, in March, a bailer had to be partially disassembled after a farmworker got his arm caught in it.
At the time, Underberg Emergency Medical Services (UEMS) spokesperson Kate Bodmann said UEMS was called out to Himeville, at the foot of the Southern Drakensberg, by a local farmer for an employee who had his arm stuck in a bailer.
Bodmann said on arrival, Underberg EMS crews found a male in his early fifties mechanically entrapped by his arm in a bailer.
She said reports from the scene indicated that the man was manually feeding hay into the bailer when his arm was caught in between two of the rollers inside the machine.
She also said that on assessment, the man was severely entrapped and the bailer had to be partially disassembled to free him.
Bodmann said once freed, the man was found to have sustained serious injuries to his left arm. He was stabilised by UEMS paramedics before being transported to a hospital for further specialised care.
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News