Story Archive

Use to Tighten Nuts

A hospital called for a rescue crew to help with a patient they couldn’t handle by themselves. “It’s really dangerous because inevitably people leave it too long to come see us because they are embarrassed,” said Peter Sutherland, a firefighter in New South Wales, Australia. “Or say ‘my wife said to put butter on it, sleep on it and it will go down’.” But, he adds, “It never does.” The lesson: don’t stick body parts into steel tools — in this case, a ring spanner. “The blood goes into the appendage whether it’s a finger or whatever,” Sutherland said. “It just swells up and by the time you realize, it’s too late.” In this case, the appendage was a “whatever” — the man put his ...uh... tool into the tool, and got stuck. Firefighters used an angle grinder to cut the steel to free him. How did they know what to do? “We do quite a few of them,” Sutherland said. The town in New South Wales: Tweed Heads. (RC/Gold Coast Bulletin) ...Though the newspaper choosing to illustrate the story with a 22mm spanner was just adding insult to the injury.