Quick-thinking first responders and medical experts at the UC San Diego's medical centers teamed up to save the arm of a man who was caught in a tortilla-making machine on Friday, a co-worker told NBC 7 on Monday.
Emergency crews were sent out to Sawaya Brothers Market in the morning after the man was trapped Friday, with his arm and shoulder caught in the machine at the Memorial-area grocery store.
The accident occurred Sawaya Brothers Market, 425 S. 30th Street, just north of Ocean View Boulevard and west of state Route 15, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department reported.
On Monday, a co-worker at the store declined to provide any other details about the victim but did say that his rescuers were able to extricate the man from the machine and save his injured limb.
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Firefighters arrived around 10 a.m. to find man suspended above the floor of the business, with his right arm entirely inside the large food-production apparatus, officials said. It took crews about 45 minutes to disassemble the machine to the point where they could free the man, according to SDFD.
Footage shot at the scene shows the worker screaming in agony — even though he had been given pain medication — as emergency personnel loaded him into an ambulance with a section of the tortilla machine still trapping his right arm.
"We had gentlemen loading up the tortilla machine when he slipped and fell and got his arm stuck in the machine. It went fully into his shoulder with a 90-degree turn," said San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Josh Slatinsky. "When crews arrived, they found him up in the air and they were able to disassemble the machine enough to get the man on the ground to disperse the weight off his shoulder and were able to load him with part of the machine into an ambulance to a local hospital."
Slatinsky said they contacted a doctor to come to the scene to evaluate the victim.
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"There is always a chance for field amputations or more medical procedures we are not able to do," he said.
A 34-person crew who assisted in the disassembling of the machine. Cal/OSHA will be contacted and Health and Safety will be shutting down the tortilla side of their market to do their health inspection, Chief Slatinsky said.
