BALDWIN, Pa. — Emergency crews responded to Sunny Drive in Baldwin Monday afternoon for reports of a man stuck in a trench.
According to initial reports, 49-year-old Pat Avery was clearing brush in his back yard when his foot got crushed and trapped under a terra cotta pipe.
Neighbors who heard Avery yelling said he was stuck for about two hours.
“I knew that he looked to be in distress even initially because he couldn’t rest his upper body and he was starting to shake,” neighbor Noreen Winans said. “Once I called into his wife to see it we could lift him out and realized his foot wasn’t budging, that’s when we called 911.”
Rescue workers set up a tripod to help take the weight off of Avery’s leg while they dug down.
“The patient was in extreme pain and his leg was not accessible to us, so we had to dig down about 3-4 feet to get access to the pipe below,” Assistant EMS Chief of Baldwin Boro Todd Blunkett said.
After about 15 minutes of work, Avery was freed and taken to UPMC Mercy to be treated for a crushed foot.
Neighbors told Channel 11’s Gordon Loesch that Avery had no idea the hole was in his back yard and that he’s expected to recover.