Finger-stuck 3 yo rescued from bath
Published: January 7, 2006
Johannesburg’s emergency services battled for three and a half hours on Friday afternoon to rescue a three-year-old Emmarentia girl from a bath — after her finger became stuck in the plug.
Emergency Management Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said the girl’s mother had given the child a bath around 1pm.
Afterwards, she pulled the plug and went to the kitchen. The child, meanwhile, stayed in the bathroom and presumably started playing with the draining water.
In the process her fingers became stuck in a grill in the plug hole.
Her mother then tried various means, including lubricants and oils to pry the fingers loose. Emergency services were then summoned.
Emmarentia is one of Johannesburg’s older suburbs, and the bath turned out to be of cast iron construction with lead drainage piping.
Bath had to be broken out
“We then had to break the entire bath out, and break the piece surround the plug out using ripsaws, hammers and chisels and all kinds of stuff,” Midgley said.
The child, by now sedated, was then rushed to the nearby Milpark hospital where the plug was removed in the casualty room. She was otherwise unharmed and is expected to make a full recovery.
The bath will have to be replaced.
Midgley said problems of this type were more common than one would imagine but generally quickly dealt with, as later baths and washbasins were made of porcelain and plastic, while the piping was often rubber, which responded well to hammers and knives.
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