JAMMED IN LIFT

Evening Star, Issue 22990, 22 June 1938, Page 2

JAMMED IN LIFT

BOY'S AWFUL PREDICAMENT GIVEN AH ANESTHETIC Three doctors were called from Sydney Hospita| last week to administer an anaesthetic to a boy whose leg was so tightly jammed between the edge of the floor of a lift and the third floor level of a city building that the flesh was torn, exposing the bone. The victim was Desmond Rankin, 14. Arthur Dedwell, another messenger, said that ho and Rankin got into a goods lift at the rear of the building, and as the driving handle had been removed, a pieoo of wood was being used by them to, operate tho starting mechanism of the lift. During one of the journeys from the ground to the fourth floor Rankin said he wanted to leave the lift at tho third floor. .Just as it was stopping at this level Redwell said Rankin tried to jump out, but his foot slipped, and his leg was caught between the lift floor and the landing level. Before the lift stopped it had moved some distance, and Rankin's leg was jammed so tightly that most of the sinews and muscles were torn. Bedwell managed to get out, and when the Central District Ambulance arrived, they saw that tho hov was suffering so badly that it would he impossible to extricate him without medical assistance. Word was sent to Sydney Hospital, and Drs Harhison. Banks, and Anderson rushed to the building. They administered jin anaesthetic to tho hov, and ho was then removed from the lift. Throughout the night specialists at Sydney Hospital fought hard to save the boy’s life. At first it was thought that amputation of the limb offered the only hope, but another operation was decided upon and carried out. However, he bad suffered such a heavy loss of blood that a transfusion was decided upon. There was no dearth of donors, and Inter his condition was reported to be critical, but hopeful.