A man was reportedly rushed to the hospital Friday morning after a serious accident at Sawaya Brothers Market in San Diego in which his arm became trapped in a tortilla machine.
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) received an emergency call around 10 a.m. reporting that a man had gotten his arm stuck up to the shoulder in the part of a machine that grinds masa, the corn dough used to make tortillas, according to Fox 5 San Diego.
The authorities reportedly deployed a large response team to the restaurant. No less than 33 personnel were involved in the effort to rescue the man, alongside National City responders, Fox 5 San Diego reported.
The crew managed to generally dismantle the tortilla machine and were able to mostly free the individual, a process that lasted roughly 45 minutes, SDFD said, NBC San Diego reported. (RELATED: Employee dies after falling into workplace dough mixing machine)
Emergency crews came to the rescue of a man who got his arm caught up to the shoulder today in a tortilla-making machine at a San Diego-area grocery store https://t.co/bB2FaT918i
— KESQ News Channel 3 (@KESQ) August 17, 2024
“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,” SDFD Battalion Chief Josh Slatinsky told NBC San Diego. “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 reportedly added that a doctor was consulted prior to the operation on the machine. “There is always a chance for field amputations or more medical procedures we are not able to do,” he told the outlet.
Responders were able to mostly dismantle the machine almost one hour after the call, Fox 5 reported.
Nobody else was reportedly harmed in the incident.