MAN LOSES ARM

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29246, 2 July 1960, Page 14

MAN LOSES ARM

Accident On 60ft Platform A man had his left arm torn off at the shoulder in an accident on top of a 60ft platform at the Coutts Island shingle-crushing plant of Farrier-Waimak, Ltd., about 7 a.m., yesterday. He is Mr George Clement Ellis, aged about 40, of 85 Quinns road, Shirley. He is married with four children. Mr Ellis was alone in the darkness on top of the high platform which surmounts the shingle bins when he caught his arm in the head drum of a conveyor. He was able to switch off the machinery before calling for help to his workmates below. After Dr. R. Hunt, of Belfast, and two St. John ambulances had been called. Mr Ellis was lowered from the high platform in a Lcmore jacket—a special stretcher to which patients are strapped for rescues in such circumstances. He was taken to the Christchurch Hospital and underwent an operation yesterday afternoon, hi- condition now being reported as satisfactory. When Mr Ellis’s call for help was heard, some of his workmates rushed up the ladder tp the platform, finding him with his left arm to-n off, and bleeding profusely. They called Dr. Hunt and a St. John ambulance, and received telephoned instructions on how to stop the bleeding from the St. John Ambulance headquarters.

On arrival at the crushing plant, Dr. Hunt climbed the ladder to the platform, with a man helping him with his bag, and attended to Mr Ellis, who was in a shocked stale, but bandaged and wrapped in blankets by his workmates Their efforts to stop the bleeding had been successful, and Mr Ellis was given an injection to help ease the pain and shock. It was decided that to get Mr Ellis down from the platform, a Lomore jacket would be necessary. This is not part of the normal equipment of an ambulance, so the ambulance at Coutts Island called its headquarters by radiotelephone for a second ambulance to bring one out. Two drivers who were about to go off duty hurriedly drove out in a second ambulance bringing the jacket, Mr Ellis was secured in it, and lowered from the platform, two lines taking the weight, and two keeping the jacket clear of the plant.