Gary Walker in hospital after being impailed on a steel picket.Picture: COURTESY CHANNEL 9
A 45-YEAR-OLD Werribee man turned his belt into a tourniquet after he fell onto a steel picket at Brimbank Scenic Lookout last week.
Gary Walker was looking for bark for his pet birds when he slipped and fell about two metres from a rock, landing on a steel star picket on Monday night.
Mr Walker told paramedics he fainted because of the pain, then woke to find the picket embedded in his left leg.
With some quick thinking and a little bit of imagination, Mr Walker turned his belt into a tourniquet before pulling the picket from his leg.
He then dragged himself to his car to call an ambulance, a trip that took him 90 minutes.
Paramedic Cate Jones said an ambulance arrived just after 7pm to find Mr Walker in “severe pain, bleeding extensively and quite pale and sweaty”.
“I used direct pressure on the wound to help reduce the bleeding,” Ms Jones said.
“We put a drip in his arm and gave him a large amount of fluid through the drip to help raise his dangerously low blood pressure.”
Mr Walker was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition and was discharged last Wednesday.
While the media have dubbed Mr Walker the ‘Bear Grylls of Brimbank’, Ms Jones said it was important not to pull out foreign objects that have pierced the skin.
“You can actually cause more serious injuries and bleeding.”
