Close Call for New York Man Trapped in Garbage Compactor

Surgeons almost had to amputate the arm of an upstate New York waste disposal worker to free him from the grip of a garbage truck compactor.

The 49-year-old Geneva man was trapped for three hours Friday when his arm became wedged in the compactor’s steel jaws.

For a time, things looked so grim that two trauma surgeons and an anesthesiologist were flown to the accident scene in Farmington for a possible amputation.

Rescuers were finally able to free the man using cutting torches.

The victim was being treated at a hospital in Rochester.