A 53-YEAR-OLD farmer from Fort Nottingham is in the intensive care unit at Medi-Clinic Hospital after he sustained critical injuries yesterday morning from a pig bolt, used in the farming industry to slaughter pigs.
Netcare Limited spokesperson Chris Botha said the man is “fighting for his life”.
Botha said the farmer was reportedly inside a shed when he was “struck in the temporal region with a tool normally used to shoot animals”.
He said a private ambulance service, Nsele Emergency Services, called for the assistance of a Netcare 911 advanced life support paramedic to help them stabilise the critically injured man.
The man was airlifted by the Netcare 911 medical helicopter with a trauma team on board to Pietermaritzburg.
The accident took place at a piggery at Fort Nottingham. The man’s name is known to The Witness.
Police spokesperson Captain Thulani Zwane confirmed the incident, saying no case was opened in regard to the incident and that no one else was involved.
Medi-Clinic client services manager Reshnee Beekrum described the man’s condition as critical but stable. Beekrum said the man’s wife was unable to speak to The Witness as she was too “traumatised”.
It is believed that the pig bolt entered the man’s head at the right temporal area and exited through the top of the head, but this was not confirmed.
A pig bolt is used in abattoirs to kill pigs. The steel bolt is shot into the pig’s brain and is retracted immediately, killing the pig instantly.
— Witness Reporter.
