Construction worker impaled on a rebar saved by firefighters

On the evening of May 2, a worker was pierced by a reinforcement bar at a construction site in Xiamen, in southeast China's Fujian province. The rebar, with a diameter of 28 millimeters, pierced the worker's abdomen. Both sides of his T-shirt immediately became red with blood. "He fell from 6 or 7 meters up and accidentally landed on a standing rebar," a co-worker explained.

Firefighters and first aid workers were soon on the scene. They decided to trim the protruding rebar before sending the man to the hospital. To ensure that the injured man remained still, co-workers and firefighters propped him up from below. Several firefighters gripped the rebar to minimize vibrations and movement caused by the cutting machine. Several minutes later, the protruding rebar was cut off and the man was hurried to the hospital. 

However, when he arrived at the hospital, doctors said that the remaining rebar coming out of the man's back was still too long to do a CT scan. 

Firefighters cut the rebar again, but this time it was even harder. In order to protect the worker from additional injury, they cut the bar with a relatively gentle polishing machine and controlled the temperature of the metal by sprinkling it with water to cool it down when necessary. Finally, the rebar was successfully removed. 

After more than three hours of emergency treatment, the rebar left inside the man's body was removed by doctors and his injuries were stitched up. He is currently under observation in the ICU.