June 17, 2022
SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ (MIDDLESEX)–South Brunswick Police say just after 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 16, 2022, the Monmouth Junction Fire Department, Monmouth Junction First Aid Squad, and South Brunswick Police were dispatched to Loving Pets at 110 Melrich Road for a worker trapped in a machine. First responders arrived to find a 54-year-old female employee with her forearm impaled and trapped in a machine in the production area of the business. The worker was standing on a portable stair when she put her arm into the top of the machine, apparently to clear material inside when a rotating bar moved and she was impaled through her forearm. EMTs and paramedics stabilized the patient while firefighters worked to free her arm. Firefighters first secured the power, then used hand tools to disassemble the section of the machine where the worker’s arm was trapped. After disabling the rotating bar, firefighters used several different powered cutters to remove the bar from the machine to free the worker, which took approximately 45 minutes. EMTs and firefighters placed the employee on a backboard to lower her from the stairs. She was then placed on a stretcher where her arm was packaged for transport to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where the mixing bar that impaled her arm could be safely removed.
Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith said, “This was a challenging rescue for first responders. The worker was in an elevated position, so firefighters had to work from ladders to access the top of the machine where her arm was trapped. Due to the construction of the machine and limited access, we had to develop several plans and use a number of different manual and powered tools to free her arm. Everyone did a great job under tough conditions.”