Samurai Noodle staff watch during the nearly 30-minute Seattle Fire response (Image: CHS)
An employee of Capitol Hill’s Samurai Noodle got her arm stuck inside the shop’s Broadway-facing noodle making machine Friday afternoon, according to Seattle Fire.
A rescue team used specialized tools to extricate the 22-year-old woman, according to SFD. Medics transported her to Harborview nearly a half hour after the initial 12:20 PM 911 call.
The ramen noodle shop’s noodle making machine is a prominent store-front feature on Broadway near Republican.
The rescue took place on a busy Broadway as emergency workers could be seen maneuvering around the machinery inside (Image: CHS)
Seattle Fire tells us the woman was stuck on a half-inch spike in the machine and that the response team determined the best course of action was to cut the spike off and transport the woman to the hospital where surgeons could remove it. The woman was in stable condition but the injuries to her arm are serious. Doctors will know more after the spike is removed.
SFD’s technical rescue team responded because of their unique equipment and skill sets required for this kind of incident, a spokesperson tells CHS. They were able to cut through the stainless steal spike and move the woman from the machine in 27 minutes, SFD says.
Friday’s incident has what appears to be a much better outcome than another industrial accident involving a food worker in Seattle on Thursday. In that incident, a man lost his arm after becoming trapped in machinery at an International District fortune cookie factory.
The response drew a large crowd of onlookers and media (Image: CHS)
UPDATE 7:35 PM: The victim in today’s incident has posted to Reddit’s Seattle branch and appears to be in good spirits. Here’s an update from user Culottes:
Hey so… The worker was me. I got a metal spike from the machine stuck in my arm. It was a closed unit so they had to cut me out. Im at Harborview now waiting to have some tests done but I am otherwise fine. Arm hurts though.
Here’s photo proof: http://i.imgur.com/ L9TwpUP.jpg That’s the thing that was stuck in my arm
http://i.imgur.com/KjvKV6r.jpg Oblig hospital selfie
Honestly the amount of cars they sent was a little much… Certainly the incident yesterday at the fortune cookie factory is a lot worse than what my own stupidity did to me…
Yikes. That spike looks like more than a half-inch! Culottes, you’re a rock star. Thanks for the tip in comments, loud voices.
My heart goes out to this poor woman. Wishing for her recovery :(
Ouch! Glad the team was able to make such a rapid and efficient response to the incident. Good job, SFD!
I find the photo of the woman using her cell phone to photograph the scene is disturbing. Do people have nothing better to do than gawk at injured people? For shame.
Yeah I thought the same exact thing. Why is that ghoul taking a picture of the hurt woman.
I would imagine she’s capturing the whole scene, including the crowd and the rescue. Hardly ghoulish in my eyes.
Why is documenting someone being injured at work important? Why is documenting the crowd who is watching a “rescue” important? People are injured in car accidents, bike accidents, trip & falls, etc. every day.
Unless there is a specific reason to document the scene, sitting around to gawk at the scene of an accident with your smartphone IS NOT HELPING ANYTHING. In this instance, having video/photo evidence of some unfortunate person’s accident is not going to help anyone. The first responders don’t need to be videotaped for accountability. The victim doesn’t need to watch videos of herself being transported to a hospital.
Please provide one legitimate example of how a crowd of people watching an accident such as this are benefiting anything by “documenting” it. I can’t think of any.
Maybe we should only take landscape pictures. :\ Help was not needed in the situation, SFD had things in hand. But then, as James points out, what are you doing gawking at the photos in this article? That certainly is helping!
*is not helping.
I don’t quite understand why some here think you can flip this around on me because I commented on the photos. There is a big difference between accident gawking and remarking on the act of gawking. If you need me to spell it out for you, here it is: I commented on these photos to illustrate a specific point which will hopefully cause people to think about their actions a little more. Hopefully the message will get through to at least a few people, and that WILL help us establish a more civilized community. Your photos, videos, and tweets of some poor woman’s injury are not needed. Go home people. I know if I got my arm caught in a machine, the last thing I’d want would be a bunch of inconsiderate onlookers making the whole situation that much more humiliating by photographing me enduring incomprehensible pain.
Welcome to the 21st century, where you get flamed for having the audacity to suggest that accident gawking is crass. :/
Agreed. Then I thought of the photo of the woman taking a photo. Sometimes a picture saying 1000 words is too much.
Talked about this on Facebook also. That woman said she works nearby and was concerned for her friend. I don’t know what else to say other than it made sense to her to try to capture what was happening.
I find it funny that you read an article about the happenings on the hill, specifically pointing to a picture in that article of someone taking a photo of an event on the hill, and somehow they are gawkers and you somehow aren’t?
The reason why you find it funny is because you are too dense to see the larger context of my point.
Not only do I fail to see how knowledge of this incident will benefit the community, but I also fail to see how a crowd of onlookers will benefit the unfortunate victim.
I guess most people who were feverishly snapping photos and tweeting thought they were helping the world by disseminating this information, but they were not. There are times when things need to be documented, and there are times when things happen which do not need to be tweeted to oblivion. This falls into the latter category.
May she have a quick and thorough recovery.
And I hope Samurai Noodle does a thorough investigation so this won’t happen to another employee.
Good luck to all involved.
That is the hottest cop on Broadway.
The victim made a post on reddit. Pics and all.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1q79q3/emergency_at_broadway_samurai_noodle/cda1l04
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