SES called to remove ring from broken finger at Angliss Hospital

The emergency services cover a huge range of tasks, including, believe it or not, coming to the rescue of people unable to get rings off their fingers. And it happens more often than you think.

Knox SES had to help a man after he broke his finger and couldn’t get the ring off.

Being part of the SES isn’t all helping at car accidents and dealing with storm damage — sometimes it’s coming to the rescue of people unable to get rings off their fingers.

The Knox SES Unit has twice in four weeks had to rescue men with rings stuck on their swollen fingers.

The volunteers rushed to the emergency room at Angliss Hospital on Saturday, November 23 and used a fine saw to remove a ring off the swollen finger of one unlucky man.

A ring had to be cut off a man using a saw on Saturday, November 23.

While two incidents in a month was more than usual, Knox SES community engagement leader Trudi Pratt said the incidents weren’t uncommon.

“We do a lot of things people don’t think we do,” she said.

Ms Pratt said normally when someone had a ring that won’t come off they would go to an emergency department, where the medical staff would call the emergency services if they were unable to solve the problem.

She said the hospital often didn’t have the required equipment to remove the objects, so either a fire brigade or SES unit would be called in.

Knox SES managed to get the ring off.

Knox SES volunteers successfully freed the man’s broken finger.

Ms Pratt said nine out of 10 times the rings were stuck because the person had suffered an injury to their hand or finger, like on October 30, when Knox SES helped a man who had broken his ring finger.

But there’s also the other 10 per cent of the time.

“One guy thought it would be really funny to put a metal washer on his finger and pretend he was getting married to his best mate,” she said.

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Ms Pratt said the SES did everything it could to avoid cutting objects off of people, including using soap, water and cotton to try to remove rings.

“We try every less traumatic way than cutting,” she said.

“Bolt cutters would be a terribly last resort.”

Ms Pratt said the SES had done “extensive training” to know how to not cause further injury in the process.

Anyone interested in joining the SES should contact [e-mail]