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Stamford Hospital Pediatric Emergency Room requested the assistance of Stamford Fire Department’s Rescue 1 (R-1) to help hospital personnel treat a 5-year-old boy with a bolt on his finger, according to the Stamford Fire Department.
When the R-1 crew arrived, they discovered the child had threaded a 3/8-inch steel nut onto his right index finger past the knuckle with a screw gun or socket type power tool, Stamford Fire Department Captain Philip Hayes said in a press release.
Hospital personnel had been unsuccessful in removing the nut using traditional methods.
To remove the bolt, R-1 crew used a rotary Dremel tool with an aluminum oxide cut-off wheel.
A metal dipstick was used as a protection backer and saline was irrigated onto the nut to dissipate the heat. Two cuts were made to spread the nut and it was slid off the child’s finger.
No further trauma was caused during the fire department’s extrication process. The child was sedated by hospital personnel during the entire procedure.
Firefighters David Williamson, James Fountain, and Sean Kearns responded to the incident, under the command of Captain Paul Newman.
Rescue 1 is a unit of the Stamford Fire Department that provides specialized technical rescue services. Those services include fire and EMS response, high angle rope rescue, SCUBA and water rescue, vehicle extrication, confined space rescue, and trench & building collapse rescue.
Members of the Stamford Fire Department, including Rescue Company members, received refresher training in this type of rescue technique in September of 2016 when they attended a “Man vs. Machine” class.
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