Teen's Arm Amputated to Free Him

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A doctor had to amputate a teenager's left arm to free him from a large oilfield pump he had been playing with, firefighters said.

The 17-year-old boy and his friend jumped an 8-foot fence Sunday to play with a pump jack, a common, motor-driven piece of oil field equipment that rocks up and down to lift oil out of a well.

He turned on the machine to ride it but became entangled in one of its moving parts, and his friend couldn't shut it off, Fire Chief Cecil Clay said.

The friend flagged down a taxi cab driver, who turned it off. Firefighters were unable to free the boy without further endangering him, so a surgeon was flown in on a medical helicopter to perform the emergency amputation.

The boy was then airlifted to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center.

Fire Chief Brian Stanaland said Monday the decision to amputate the arm was made after it was determined the limb was so badly mangled that it couldn't be saved even if firefighters disassembled the machine.

The boy's name was not released and hospital spokesman Allen Poston said the teenager's family requested that no information be released.

The boy's mother was at the site and went to the hospital with her son.

"I would caution anyone who's heard stories about riding these pump jacks and getting out here and messing with them to write that off," Clay said. "It's not that much fun anyway. It's dangerous."

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on March 22, 2009 at 7:53pm

Another one of those stupid moves. There was a fence around the machine for a reason. Sad that he had to loose an arm to learn that lesson. We see people do stupid things like this every day. Again, should be laws against stupidity. OUCH!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Young on March 22, 2009 at 7:59pm

You mean his criminal tresspass? I doubt it.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Young on March 22, 2009 at 8:03pm

There were some other aftershocks that came out of this. There were some pictures that were taken at the scene and "accidently" were downloaded to the internet. The guys in OK got in a little trouble as this is a HIPPA violation. I don't think anything came of it due to it being an honest mistake and the pics were removed, but be carefull what you do with the pictures you take. If the face or some othere identifyer is not altered, you could get in trouble.