Teenager hacks off his leg to escape earthquake rubble

Teenager hacks off his leg to escape earthquake rubble
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:19 PM on 10th October 2009

An 18-year-old hacked off his own leg using a blunt hoe and then a saw after he was trapped in rubble following an earthquake.
Construction worker Ramlan, from Padang, Indonesia, had been working on the seventh floor of a new building when the tremors hit the island of Sumatra on September 30.
He was trapped by a concrete girder which crushed his right leg up to the shin as he tried to flee with his fellow workers.

Trapped teenager Ramlan, 18, hacked off his leg to escape a construction site which collapsed on him in the Indonesian earthquake.

Fearing aftershocks the teenager decided his only way to escape was to cut off his leg and he grabbed a hoe. He hacked at the limb but the instrument was too blunt to cut through to the bone.

His colleagues had all fled but he used his undamaged mobile to phone one, Eman, who returned to help.
Eman, 53, handed him a trowel which he tried to use to hack at the bone. When he could not get through it Eman found him a wood saw.

Ramlan continued until the pain became too much. His friend, who lived in the same street and called him Adik, meaning little brother, finished the amputation.

Eman wrapped his t-shirt around the wound and carried his friend to Yos Sudarso Catholic hospital where doctors cleaned his wound and made a more surgically skilled amputation slightly further up.
His story was revealed by the charity Caritas, an international partner of British charity Cafod, a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).
Eman told Caritas worker Tim O'Connor: ' I just thought I have to save my friend and I raced back up to where he was. I did not think of the danger, just the welfare of my friend.'
DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said: 'Ramlan's actions were extraordinary and the courage and determination he showed is typical of many survivors with whom we are working.

'After the earthquakes in Indonesia, and the typhoons in the Philippines and Vietnam, survivors would have been the first to help themselves and others.
'Now they urgently need international support, including that being provided by DEC members and partners who are bringing in urgently-needed aid and medical supplies.'
Indonesian officials said the death toll from the quake had reached 784, with 242 people still missing.
At least 180,000 buildings were toppled or damaged and landslides swept away entire villages in the hills.
International aid groups from 30 different countries have been taking part in the relief effort.
Anyone wishing to make a donation to the DEC Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam appeal should visit http://www.dec.org.uk or call 0370 60 60 900.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1219407/Teenager-hacks-leg-escape-earthquake-rubble.html#ixzz0TZ1bgCLu

Now that's what I call real guts, Rambo would be a babe in arms compared with that!