Posted on 01/02/2008 8:02:20 PM PST by trumandogz
The 911 call Wednesday morning started simply enough.
The caller, a 52-year-old employee of Alamo Concrete, gave the address of the company east of Manor. Gasping, he struggled to give the phone number. Then, he blurted out what was wrong: "I have my arm cut off, ma'am. I have my arm cut off."
The man's arm was amputated at the elbow after it became stuck in a conveyor belt of a machine at Alamo Concrete, said Warren Hassinger, spokesman for Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services. Officials released a recording of the 911 call later Wednesday.
The man, whose name was not released by authorities, was at work to warm up some equipment about 4:30 a.m. when his coat sleeve got stuck in the machine, Hassinger said.
The man typically went to the company, at 13101 Ballerstedt Road near Manor, early in the morning to start the machines for the day, Hassinger said.
He extricated himself from the machine in 15 minutes and called 911, Hassinger said.
The operator kept the man on the phone as paramedics went to the scene.
"Is there anyone else there with you?" she asked.
"No, no, no, Just me, ma'am, just me," the man said.
He said he had gone to the office once he untangled himself from the conveyer belt.
"Is there any serious bleeding?"
"I took my arm off, ma'am," the man said.
"What part of your arm?"
"I think at the elbow," he said, adding that parts of it were still caught in his jacket.
Hassinger said he was not sure whether the man cut off his limb or whether it was severed by the machine.
The 911 operator told him to stay still and apply pressure to the wound. The man said he was sitting in a chair and couldn't move.
Paramedics took him to Brackenridge Hospital at 4:57 a.m. The man almost died at the scene and was in critical but stable condition Wednesday, Hassinger said.
Elizabeth Todd, a spokeswoman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said the accident is under investigation.
According to the administration's records, the Alamo Concrete plant where the accident happened has not been investigated for safety hazards in the past five years.
Employees at Alamo Concrete did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
"It's just a flesh wound!"
And a major part of it was just to keep him talking. It helps prevent passing out if you have to keep a clear head to answer the questions.
You can listen to the 911 call here. Chilling.
It never got past him gasping....
Was there more to it?
I got my hand hit by a baseball. My ring finger bone had slid over the top of my hand, so when I looked at it my finger was missing. I was ten years old and did freak out to say the least.
Yikes!
It goes on for 10 minutes until the policeman shows up and takes the telephone from him.
He’s in his fifties and works in a concrete plant. I’d say Chuck Norris is skeard of him!
The little button at the bottom of the player thing just races through it’s track. Probably just as well... I don’t think I could manage to listen to all 10 minutes. I’d likely have regretted it.
I listened to it till the end after the police arrived. He was very delirious and in shock but you can here the best line in the whole tape. The officer asks if there is a first aid kit, the man (Robert) says, “I think there are some band aids in the bathroom cabinet...but I don’t think that’ll work.”
Tough man of the Year 2008!
It would have been great if the man asked the dispatcher, “Hey, how bout some instructions a one armed man on the phone can do?”
Good that he kept his sense of humor.
How tragic. I’m glad he survived.
You got to like this guy.
the cop asks a dumb question and the guy with his arm ripped off comes back with a smart ass answer.
You can download the wav file here.
http://www.filefactory.com/file/8c7f6c/
Just skip past the ad screen.
Each time I had an incident (and there were many) where I had something serious like this, I looked, but never felt any pain.
The pain comes later.
Obviously of British ancestry. Stiff upper lip an’ all that.
i hope you didn’t have too many incidents just like this! “voice to type” might be in your future. :^)
Only a flesh wound.
Sounds like a Southerner whose mama told him there was no excuse for discourtesy. None. Ever. "No, ma'am."
I've never actually lost a piece of myself, but I've had two deep finger lacerations, both accidentally self-inflicted. The one from the Swiss army knife on my thumb, almost ten years ago, has largely faded; the one from the electric hedge trimmer, about three years ago, is still pretty distinct.
In both cases, the pain didn't hit right away. I felt a little stunned, even seeing stars; I grabbed a rag, squeezed the hell out of the wound site, and held it over my head until I could get to the first aid kit to give it a proper dressing.
A sliced finger isn't a severed arm. But I can extrapolate a bit. I can see how someone who managed to handle that crisis, who knew enough to stanch the bleeding and stay conscious, could maintain a no-nonsense demeanor when telling the tale. Especially if the "yes, ma'am" level of courtesy is taught from earliest childhood and is as natural as breathing.
agreed. i might add that i sat in the er with no pain killers, told the nurses that my pain level was 1 (instead of 10), for 4 1/2 hours before a doctor came back and saw that part of my finger was hanging off and that there was a pool of blood on the floor. instead of claiming that the pain i was feeling (and it was minimal due, i think, to severed nerves) was greatly exaggerated, i just waited my turn.
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