A woman was rushed to Cartagena’s Santa Lucia hospital on Saturday after she caught her hand in an electric meat grinder while making sausages.
She was taken out of the market on a stretcher, unconscious and with one hand still inserted into the machine.
Although her life is not in danger, she nevertheless underwent emergency surgery at the hospital, health sources confirm.
The work accident, attended by health workers, firefighters and the Police, took place at eleven in the morning in the Santa Florentina market, in Cartagena, in one of the butcher stalls. Witnesses alerted Emergencies that the woman had trapped her hand in the machine and could not get it out.
Witnesses explained that when the paramedics arrived at the scene, the victim was still trapped, bleeding and had lost consciousness.
Due to the seriousness of her injuries, she was transferred to Santa Lucía de Cartagena, still attached to the machine, from which she could not be released.
It has still to be clarified if the mincer had the relevant safety guards.
With the initial surgery complete doctors are now looking at ways by which they can rebuild her hand, which has suffered serious damage from the action of the cutting machine.
One of the hypotheses being considered is that the woman put her hand in the machine to “push through the meat,” although, at this time that is pure conjecture.
The event has been brought to the attention of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health of the Region.
