Man Survives Gruesome Impaling

A 52 year old man in Sri Lanka is lucky to be alive after he was impaled on three 7 metre long, 16mm diameter steel rods.

D.M. Gunarathne was the victim of what’s being called a freak accident on a construction site in Wellawatte on the 6th August. A five story building was being built on the site, and Gunarathne had been working there for 12 months as a mason. On the day of the accident Gunarathne was helping lift bundles of iron rods to the top floor of the construction using a mechanical hoist.

Gunarathne told the Sunday Times in Sri Lanka what occurred on that fateful day.

“We had to send bundles of iron rods to the level of the fifth floor. I tied five of them together with a binding wire, attached the bundle to a hook in the electrically-operated hoist cable and sent the bundle up with a lift-haul,”

But as Gunarathn watched the load rise up to the fifth floor he noticed the bindings come undone and the five metal rods came raining down on him, spearing his body.

“I tried to step away, but three went through my body,” he said.

Gunarathne was in total agony, he was still fully conscious whilst the fire crews sawed the rods down short enough for him to fit in an ambulance. And he was still fully conscious as he was rushed into the emergency room at the National Hospital in Colombo.

Dr. Wijenayake headed a team of doctors at the hospital who quickly assessed Gunarathne’s injuries and raced to save his life.

[quote]“Two rods had pierced the right side of the chest, gone through the upper torso on the same side and come out from the buttocks,” Dr. Wijenayake explained.

The third rod had passed straight through Gunarathne’s right leg, entering just above the knee and exiting directly beneath it.

“The patient was very frightened and shocked” he added.

One of the rods was extremely difficult to remove, it had passed through Gunarathne’s right lung, pierced the diaphragm, punctured the liver and gall bladder and travelled through the bowel, intestines and colon before emerging through the buttocks.

To remove the rod safely the team of surgeons had to ensure that the liver was not contaminated by faeces from the bowels. The gall bladder was completely removed, as was part of the bowel. The surgeons sliced open the intestines and lifted them out of the way, they had to push the faeces to one side as the rod was then pulled out of Gunarathne’s body through the hole the rod had made in his buttock. Pulling the rod out the way it entered the body would have caused the liver to become infected with faecal matter and made Gunarathne’s injuries much worse.

Just thirteen days after the accident Gunarathne had recovered enough to be able to sit up, and says he feels little pain or discomfort.

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