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Man Has Hook Driven Through Skull
LAST UPDATE: 12/2/2004 1:15:09 PM
Posted By: Jim Forsyth
(SAN ANTONIO) -- An employee of a San Antonio heavy equipment company was critically injured today when a six inch long hook on the back of a front end loader was jammed through his skull while he was moving equipment at the Holt Caterpillar Company, officials said today.
"Through and through," was how Yvette Granados, the captain of the San Antonio Fire Department paramedics who supervised the incident, described it to 1200 WOAI news, referring to a wound which goes in one side of the head and comes out the other.
Amazingly, the victim, identified only as a man in his sixties, was conscious and talking with paramedics throughout the two and a half hours it took them to cut off the hook, Granados said.
She said the biggest problem facing paramedics in what she described as an 'extreme rescue' was the fact that traditional blow torches could not be used to remove the steel hook, which was welded onto the piece of heavy machinery, because the fire would have burned the patient.
"We found a plasma cutter and that turned out to be the coolest method we could find to extricate him from it," she said.
"We had one of our firefighters who had his hand under the patient's head. When it would heat up, we had to stop. That's what took the process so long."
Two surgeons were taken to the equipment yard by paramedics to supervise the delicate process, which was performed outside an equipment garage and surrounded by other pieces of heavy equipment, as well as gasoline pumps, repair hoists, and oil drums.
"It was extreme," Grenados said. "This was one of the most extreme extrications our people have been involved in."
Holt Caterpillar spokesman Joe Carreon said he couldn't immediately say what caused the accident.
Holt Caterpillar, which is located on a sprawling stretch of land in southeast San Antonio, is the largest Caterpillar dealer in the country. It is owned by Peter Holt, who in addition to being the great grandson of the founder of the legendary company is also the majority owner of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs.
The victim was airlifted to San Antonio University Hospital with a portion of the hook still embedded in his skull, Granados said. A University Hospital spokeswoman confirmed he is being treated there but did not have a condition. A San Antonio Fire Department spokesman said the man's condition was 'stable.'
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story...7-4CD9BB94E396
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Sorry
No problem, I was just pointing out that Forsyth got scooped AGAIN...
Late word says that the poor man will lose his eyesight. The hook went through both optical nerves. Sad!
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