This is not the same as 127 Hours. However, pray that you don’t have to undergo the same experience as this unlucky Jurong West resident who got his arm firmly lodged in his bathroom’s drainage pipe for 10 hours yesterday before he was finally freed.
Poh Chee Keat, in his 50s, was home alone taking a shower in the master bedroom bathroom around noon when his ring fell into the drain. In an attempt to reach in and grab hold of the ring, his arm — elbow deep in the drainage pipe — got trapped, The New Paper reports.
We can’t imagine how he must have felt at that moment; probably a combination of fear and amusement over the absurdity of the situation.
Shit, however, got real when Poh failed to get anyone’s attention even as he shouted for help. His arm remained trapped for another five hours before his wife returned home and discovered him lying unconscious on the toilet floor. She was initially worried when her husband did not answer her phone calls — and her worries were totally justified.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was called around 6pm, and the agency sent a fire engine, a Red Rhino and three supporting vehicles to the scene at Block 517C along Jurong West Street 52.
The rescue operation to extricate his arm lasted four long hours, as rescuers had to drill the whole section of of the drainage pipe which involved drilling through the bathroom floor all the way down to the ceiling of the unit below. The resident in the unit below noted that when rescuers finally managed to remove the bottom part of the pipe, Poh’s arm had become horribly swollen.
Throughout the rescue operation, Poh’s condition was kept stable, and he was given oxygen by paramedics
Poh was finally freed from the bathroom and moved to the ambulance waiting downstairs. Considering the severity of the swelling, a part of the pipe remained attached to his arm as he was conveyed to the National University Hospital.
Despite what you may think, people getting their arms stuck in toilet drain pipes happens quite a lot. The last time a similar case took place was in June last year, when an 82-year-old man’s arm was trapped in a shower drain pipe for more than 12 hours, and he was discovered nearly seven hours later.
Photo: Bart Everson via Flickr
