A 22-year-old labourer had a miraculous escape after he fell on vertical iron rods at an under-construction building site in Sector 32 on Wednesday morning.

The worker, Kamlesh, lives alone in the city and was a daily wage earner at the complex, being built by Bhiana Builders.

Around 9 am, he slipped from the fourth floor of the building and landed on bare, vertical iron rods on the ground. Three of the rods pierced him. One entered through the left of abdomen and emerged from the right side of his chest. The other two pierced his pelvis. His co-workers cut the rods and rushed him to the nearby Sunrise Hospital.

According to Dr Manish Jha, when the patient arrived, he was conscious but his blood pressure was very low due to excessive blood loss.

Explaining the extent of damage, Jha said a portion of his liver had split open. His stomach, intestines, lungs and diaphragm had ruptured. One of the rods had punctured his urethra and all the muscles were damaged.

“This is the first time I handled such a complicated case,” he said. The patient was critical since he had lost a lot of blood. “We immediately took him to the operation theatre, where it took us four hours to extricate the iron rods and stitch his wounds.”

Five units of blood were required for the operation. Kamlesh is on a ventilator but his vitals, said Jha, are normal. He will be kept under observation for the next 72 hours.

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