A volunteer doctor has spoken of the effort by emergency services to free a woman who had her hand stuck in a metal drain cover in Bourne.
Paramedics, firefighters and crews from the East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme, known as Emics, and the Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Services (LIVES), were called to Holloway Avenue in the early hours of the morning to help the woman in her 20s.
She had tried to retrieve something from a drain and got her hand stuck in the cast iron cover. A friend was with her.
Dr Leon Roberts, a volunteer doctor with Emics, said he was called at about 2.20am and East Midlands Ambulance Service had already been there for two hours trying to free the woman.
Lincolnshire County Council’s highways department was also there digging up the road as part of the effort to release her.
Dr Roberts said: “The woman was trapped by her right hand in a very tight position
“She was getting quite distressed so I was called to offer medical support in giving her some sedation and pain relief.
“She was very upset and it was quite a commotion in Bourne, particularly at that time in the morning.”
Firefighters used hand tools and hydraulic rescue equipment to remove the surrounding kerb stones and tarmac to lift the drain cover out.
The woman was taken to Peterborough City Hospital at about 4am with her hand still stuck in the drain. She was accompanied by a volunteer doctor from LIVES.
A LIVES spokesman said: “A woman had trapped her hand in a drain cover while trying to get a marble out of the drain.
“Crews attempted to saw the drain off but this did not work and the woman was taken to hospital by ambulance with the drain still attached.
“The woman was given a lot of sedation as her hand had become swollen.
“At hospital staff used lubrication to help remove her hand from the drain. The woman was not injured.”
A spokesman for East Midlands Ambulance Service said: “We received the emergency 999 call at 12.22am on Sunday, May 19, and the caller reported someone’s hand was stuck down a drain.
“Our emergency operations centre dispatched clinicians in a fast response vehicle and a double crewed ambulance, with the first response vehicle arriving on scene first.
“The ambulance crews were supported on scene by doctors from East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme and LIVES.
“The ambulance took the patient to hospital in Peterborough, accompanied by the LIVES doctor.”