Man impaled on meat hook

UPDATE: A Te Puke man is in a stable condition in Tauranga Hospital today after spending an hour and a half with a meat hook impaled through his face at the Affco meatworks.

The 42-year-old was part of a cleaning crew working at the meat processing plant at Rangiuru on Tuesday evening, says Te Puke Volunteer Fire Brigade station officer Ivon Pilcher.

A man was impaled on a meat hook at the Affco site in Rangiuru.

The man was impaled on a device on the lamb chain called a spreader about 7pm, says Ivon.

'He had it impaled through the side of his face and we had to work out a way of getting him off it,” says Ivon today.

Volunteer firefighters from Te Puke and Maketu worked for an hour and a half to remove the meat hook from a man's face.

'In the end we actually unbolted the hook arrangement on the chain and managed to get him off with the hook still inside his face. The ambulance had numbed him enough that he actually pulled it out himself.”

The man was standing when he was impaled, says Ivon.

Ivon doesn't know exactly how it happened but a Worksafe occupational health and safety inspector was on scene.

'It's a chain that moves along - its got a whole series of these spreaders with hooks on them they are very, very solid,” says Ivon.

The fire crews supported the 42-year-old through the process, but they were helped a great deal by the impaled man's jovial attitude to his situation, says Ivon.

'It was a puncture rather than a rip or tear. It went in by his ear and came out beside his eye, lodged between cheek muscle and skull bone.”

The man was taken to Tauranga hospital by St John Ambulnace.

A hospital spokesperson says the man is today in a stable condition at Tauranga Hospital.

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