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Man Rescued After Getting Foot Trapped In Drainage Pipe

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A man is in the hospital after rescuers dug him out of a hole in his backyard.

Pictures show what happened, they were snapped moments after neighbors say Pat Avery was rescued this afternoon.

His foot got stuck in a terracotta drainage pipe while doing some yard work in the backyard of his Sunny Drive home.

Noreen Winans was outside when it happened.

"I was wrapping up, finishing up going to head into the house and you know the next thing you know I heard him calling my name," Winans said.

She rushed to the 49-year-old's side. He couldn't move his foot or leg after unknowingly stepping into a large hole covered with leaves.

"His other leg was going numb from trying to hold himself up," said Ed Davies with the South Hills Technical Rescue team.

Davies says his men joined Baldwin EMS and firefighters, using a tripod to take the weight off the man's legs.

"In that type of injury you don't have a lot of bleeding," Davies said. "It's all internal and you don't have the blood flow coming back to the heart, so you have that blood sitting there and the extremity starts to die."

Neighbors say Avery was in a lot of pain, but was conscious and alert. He was given pain meds as crews chiseled off the pipe surrounding his foot.

"Maybe about 3 to 4 feet down to the bottom of the pipe to cut the pipe and get him out," said Todd Plunket with Baldwin EMS.

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