BREAKING NEWS

Victim of bizarre work accident saved at Rambam

The life of 55-year-old worker from a town in Haifa’s bay-side suburbs whose heart was hit by a piece of metal from a hammer was saved on Sunday at Rambam Medical Center.
The worker hit a metal object with a heavy hammer, causing a small piece to break off and enter his chest with great force. He was rushed to Rambam bleeding and in deteriorating condition. Dr. Ron Kramer, head of the surgical department, opened his chest and found the piece of metal had gone through his ribs and punctured his lung and heart. The accumulated blood had almost caused his heart to stop pumping.
Dr. Ovad Cohen, acting head of the cardiac surgery department, sewed up the hole his the heart, stopping the hemorrhaging. “One doesn’t see many cases in which a piece of metal hit by a hammer causes more damage than a bullet or a knife,” he said. “If there had been a delay in his evacuation or in the trauma room, he would have died." The man is stable in the cardiac surgery department.