Rare amputations save life of man caught in machine

[Jon]

Rare amputations save life of man caught in machine


By JO CIAVAGLIA

Bucks County Courier Times

The following story is based on interviews Friday during a Lower Bucks Hospital debriefing with the emergency, police, medical, fire and rescue personnel who were on the scene of Thursday's emergency amputation of the arms of Walter VanDoren Jr. at Columbia Lighting Co. in Bristol The company didn't return phone calls Friday.

Dr. David Jaslow looked at the 58-year-old man with both arms crushed between a set of 2,000-pound metal rollers.

Calmly and clearly, he explained the situation to Walter VanDoren Jr. Surrounding them were nearly two dozen firefighters, engineers and plant workers furiously attempting to take apart the metal press trapping VanDoren.

More than an hour earlier, VanDoren had been pulled into the machine. Now, his heartbeat had slowed. The color had drained from his face. Rescue workers had to prod answers out of him.

Read More Here - Bucks County Courier Times

 

[MariaCatEMT]

Excellent article! Thanks for finding, and sharing it. Prayers for Mr. VanDoren and his family. It would have been amazing to be there and see EMS, firefighters.....the doc.....all working together to get this done.

Being in central IL, the region experiences the occasional traumatic amputation, uusually related to farm equipment of some sort. I haven't heard of a surgical field amputation being done.

The last factory related death that I know of, the person was crushed....and was killed.

So many jobs have dangerous conditions....as evidenced by this article.

 

[Jon]

The Doc is well, A unique individual....

He is the command doc for where I work part time, and my school.

I saw the title and location, and wondered when I would see his name.....

He is a great guy to have around.

 

[Jon]

Comment about this - Dr. Jaslow and others involved are presenting this at FireHouse Expo in Baltimore as part of an "EMS Track"