Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Alex Cope, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire
This is the moment a group of surgeons enlist the help of the fire brigade after a woman was impaled by a thick steel bar and the medics could not safely remove it.
Doctors at the Beijing Chaoyang Emergency Medical Center in the Chinese capital received the female patient – around 40 to 50 years old – straight from a construction site on 27th August.
The unnamed construction worker had reportedly lost her footing and fallen from a height onto a protruding reinforced steel bar measuring 1.5 metres (5 feet) in length.
The rebar, which was seven centimetres (2.7 inches) think, shot into her right hip and lodged itself in her abdominal cavity, the fire service revealed.
Rescuers were able to cut her free from the reinforced steel bar but kept the metal inside her body before rushing her to hospital.
However, the fire service was called back to the facility to assist in removing the iron bar.
Fireman Sun Lei recalled: “The victim had already been taken into an operating theatre and was preparing to undergo surgery.
“When we arrived, we were told to rush to the emergency room, where we saw the victim with the steel bar stuck in her hip.
“The rebar was so deep in her abdomen it nearly punctured her stomach.”
Sun’s team prepared cutters and even a large pair of hydraulic pliers; however, in the end they opted for a large saw, citing the risk of causing further injury to the woman.
Video of the operation shows doctors and nurses gathered around to watch as a fireman saws at the protruding steel bar, causing sparks to fly in the room.
The rescuers said they covered the patient with a blanket and continuously poured water on the circular saw in order to cool it down.
The woman was later wheeled into surgery, with the remaining rebar section successfully removed.
She is understood to be recovering without incident, but it is unclear whether she will suffer any long-term effects from the ordeal.
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