By Vanessa Chircop
ONE man is in a critical condition after being crushed in a workplace incident, while another was impaled by a metal spike in two separate workplace incidents last week.
Last Wednesday a man was revived after he was crushed in a workplace accident at Altona North.
Two advanced life support ambulances, an intensive care ambulance and a single responder intensive care paramedic were called to the factory just before 6pm.
Advanced life support paramedic Stephen Aitken said when the first ambulance arrived five minutes after the call, they found the 49-year-old man’s colleagues doing CPR on him.
“We understand the man was operating a cherry picker machine and was somehow crushed between it and a metal beam in the factory,” Mr Aitken said.
“Colleagues found him and freed him and had to carry him out of the area which had asbestos in it.
“The man had a collapsed lung so paramedics performed a procedure where a large needle was inserted into his chest.
“That cleared trapped air and blood in his chest cavity and allowed his lung to reinflate.
“CPR was continued and intensive care paramedics gave the man some adrenaline, which is a drug to stimulate heart activity.
“The man’s heart then began beating.
“A large breathing tube was put into his lungs and we took over breathing for him.”
The man was taken to The Alfred hospital in a critical condition.
A second man was injured in Altona last Wednesday after he jumped over a fence and impaled his leg on a spike.
Paramedic Paul Statham said when they arrived they found the man being cared for by workmates.
“He told us that he slipped as he was trying to jump the fence and that the metal stake pierced the back of his leg near his knee,” he said.
“It was a serious injury, with the metal actually protruding out the other side of his leg.
“His colleagues did the right thing by holding the 31-year-old up and supporting his weight as they called for an ambulance.
“The spikes on top of the fence would be about 30 centimetres long by four centimetres wide and the top of the fence would be about six feet off the ground.
“He was understandably distressed and told us that it was the worst pain he’d ever felt.
“While he was still attached to the fence, we gave him pain relief through an inhaler before we inserted a drip to give him more powerful pain relief medication.
“He required a substantial amount of pain relief as the MFB cut the spike free from the fence.
A moist dressing around the wound and the remaining section of the spike was kept still to minimise any pain and any further damage.
The man was taken to the Alfred Hospital with the metal still in his leg in a stable condition.
