That poor man with his foot stuck in the drain has drowned

[WendyWeber]

He was trying to unblock it

so

very

from what I can gather, they had been frantically trying to free him for hours

Saw that on TV, what a horrible way to die.

thats so sad, poor man - why didnt they get him breathing apparatus, you know, diving gear? I guess there must be a reason why

I wondered why they didn't amputate his foot if that's what was stopping him getting free. Twould surely be better to be alive?

just a tube or a pipe for him to breathe through might have been enough to save him. given them longer to free him.

It will be on the evening news, I'm sure... perhaps they'll tell us why they couldn't do that. It does seem quite obvious that they should have done something like that though, doesn't it?

I've been wondering why he couldn't have a snorkel but didn't want to say so in case people thought I was being flippant.

Perhaps things got worse more quickly than they were expecting and there was no time to do the foot thing.

Shit! How awful. As most of you have said, surely they could have done something. Poor man .

On our local news they said that he had/was getting breathing apps.

As far as I am aware though it takes some skill and practive to use diving gear - although I have never tried it myself.

From the way it was described it ("At one point, he lost consciousness as the emergency crews struggled to free him. Moments later, he lost his battle for life.") doesn't sound as though he necessarily drowned -- could have been a heart attack or hypothermia or something like that. If there were police diver teams around then there would have been scuba gear.

Oh, that's horrible - I'll have nightmares about that (being trapped underwater is one of my worst fears). Poor, poor man - you do wonder why they couldn't have got him breathing apparatus or - last resort - amputated his foot but they must have tried everything and maybe it was hypothermia or a heart attack as lemonaid says. Just awful.

I imagine it's difficult to find an underwater surgeon who can fit into a drain with a drowning man to amputate his foot, frankly.
Shocking and sad though.

fair point, aloha - didn't think about that

It says even some of the people who were trying to help him were being treated for hypothermia so the conditions must have been truly dreadful.

what an awful way to go. Very sad the firefighters couldn't get him out - but if they couldn't, with all their expertise in cutting people free, no-one could.

OMG thats near me, will have to watch the news later, hope i don't know him

How sad

I am sure they used and/or tried to use everything int heir power to save him.

On the BBC website it says:

"Rescuers, including police divers, spent several hours battling to free the man, thought to be his 20s, but were unable to save him. "

So I think they will have gone through every option before he lost his battle.

I happened to catch casualty at the weekend (never usually watch it) and this happened on there but a man has his fingers caught so they chopped them off with no painkillers or anything. He would have drowned otherwise. Very similar to this.

Poor man, I would have been asking them to cut the foot off any way possible, surgeon or no surgeon.

Poor man and his family

FWIW I work in a simular area and I'm sure the firefighters did everything possible to save him. It's sometimes not easy for bystanders to understand why different things are done/not done but I'd safely say everyone there did all in their power to help the poor man. It's a very sad tragedy.

This is awful. That poor man. The water really is getting scary around here! Hope this rain slows soon.

I imagine he had hypothermia as he'd been in the water for three hours. I wondered about amputation, even if it was rough and ready due to the circumstances. It's so sad.

I would also imagine just cutting someone's foot off, in those circumstances, could have killed him anyway - through the shock.

horrible

how very sad.

I'm not so sure.

Remember the guy who amputated his own arm when it got stuck under a boulder?