Man Loses Arm in An Industrial Accident, But First Responders Save His Life

A 9-11 call was received at 5:30 am on March 22 this year. The call came from National Coating Corporation where an employee who was working on a machine met an accident that severed his arm.

The victim, a 66-year-old man, was working on a machine when his arm got caught in the machinery and it was subsequently pulled into the gears.

Two officers, in the persons of Sgt. Thomas MacDonald and Officer Mark Nota, responded to the call quickly and arrived promptly to find the victim sitting on a chair with a pool of blood beneath him.

The two officers quickly administered first aid by applying a tourniquet over the wound in order to stop the bleeding. Shortly after, the victim was then transported to the South Shore Hospital in Weymouth before he was later transported to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston where he has been reported to be stable and is already on his way to recovery.

If anything, this incident has only served to completely prove the importance of training police officers on first aid and in ensuring that every cruiser has the essential medical supplies. Were it not for the quick response and training of both officers, the victim would have surely died of blood loss (30 minutes if left untreated) long before emergency personnel arrived on the scene.

Now, the task falls to the doctors to ensure that the man is able to recover from his gnarly accident. And while, it’s fortunate that the victim is in a stable condition, one should also be aware that not every is as lucky as he is to have reliable medical staff to treat such a grievous wound.

The accusation of malpractice is a tragic thing to think about. However, it’s also a question that needs to be answered to ensure that only qualified staff are doing the job of handling those who need their help most, and that they’re worthy of taking on a responsibility as huge as that of assisting in high risk emergency situations.

Medical malpractice occurs inside the emergency room more often than you might think. Though most treatments happen without incident, there are simply too many variables during any emergency medical procedure. In a room full of tense medical professionals handling multiple patients, mistakes are bound to happen.

However, there has to be a line drawn between an honest mistake and an instance of medical malpractice. That line being the presence of negligence. To prove negligence, it has to be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the level of care and attention that the staff provided was not at par with that of the standards of other medical professionals. Or, it must be shown that the protocols that guide procedure in a certain situation were not properly followed.

Some examples of these include but are not limited to:

• Failing to accurately detect any previously-unseen complications
• Undiagnosed, untreated infection in the victim
• Administering medications that the patient is allergic to
• Misuse of medical instruments

If you feel that you weren’t taken care of properly, and this resulted in further injury a medical malpractice attorney is going to be the specific type of lawyer that you should be talking to. They are able to help families collect settlements when they can demonstrate malpractice. And while no amount of money can ever hope to replace the life of a loved one, monetary compensation can at least help you and your family recover from the loss.