Number 8 Mark Bullock
In November of 2011, an engineer was boiled alive by super-heated steam while conducting maintenance
work on machinery at an animal rendering plant in Cheddleton, Staffordshire, England. On
November the 5th, Mark Bullock, aged 50, was on a night shift when one of the factory’s lines became
blocked. The self-employed maintenance engineer entered a confined space inside an industrial
oven in an attempt to clear the blockage. The oven was larger than a double-decker bus and capable of
handling 24 tons of waste. Connected to it was a vessel that collected the foul vapor produced
by the waste cooking process. While Bullock was making the repairs, one of the lines that
took out the vapor turned off causing steam to feed back into the oven. It was a quick process
and not a gradual one with rescuers who later arrived at the factory comparing the scene to
a “foggy night”. The engineer was struck by steam that carried a temperature of roughly
535 degrees Fahrenheit. He suffered burns to 90% of his body and died the following day.
In 2015, after a lengthy investigation, a court ordered the plant’s operators,
John Pointon and Sons, to pay nearly $1.2 million. The sum represented the combined total of a fine
and damages, of around $250,000, that were paid to the victim’s family. The company admitted guilt
after it was determined that they hadn’t conducted risk assessment on the job Bullock
was performing and that he’d been improperly supervised on the night of the incident.
Number 7 Kelly Nield
24-year-old Kelly Nield, of Cheshire, England, suffered life-threatening injuries, in April
of 2009, following an accident at a factory that manufactured clothes hangers for various
outlets. The facility was based on Deeside, North Wales. Nield had leaned over to free some hangers
that were blocking the mechanism of a conveyor belt. Her scarf was caught in the line’s cogs
and then her ponytail was pulled in as well. Nield was left gasping for air and, because the
factory floor was busy at the time, the accident wasn’t initially noticed by her coworkers. As
she desperately tried to free herself, the young woman stuck her little finger in the mechanism,
which fractured the digit and nearly severed it off. A portion of her hair was also pulled off and
subsequent photos taken at the scene would show a massive clump of it tangled in the cogs. Nield’s
colleagues eventually spotted her, prompting a workman to press the main off switch and power
down the belt. Another colleague used a pair of scissors to cut the scarf that had narrowly
strangled the woman to death. Nield began coughing up blood and her throat immediately swelled to the
point that she was no longer able to speak and struggled to breathe properly. Aside from the
loss of most of her hair and the finger injury, Nield was left with a crushed and twisted larynx,
scarring of the esophagus and trachea as well as scarring of the epiglottis.
She spent three months in the hospital and was fitted with a stomach peg to feed her liquids
because she was unable to swallow. The woman also suffered from flashbacks and emotional trauma
in connection to the incident, during the course of which she believed she was going to die.
The company admitted guilt to several charges, including failure to install an emergency stop
on the assembly line and failure to provide Nield with appropriate training regarding the dangers.
They were fined over $80,000. Number 6 Atushkumar Patel
In the fall of 2012, east London man Atushkumar Patel lost four fingers and part of his right
hand when the industrial machine he was cleaning switched on automatically. Patel, who at the time
of the accident was in his late 30s, had been conducting maintenance on a packing line when
a blade cut deep into his limb and amputated his fingers. As explained by medical experts, in the
case of reattaching digits, time is of the essence and surgery should ideally be conducted within a
6-hour window. Patel’s colleagues reportedly placed the severed body parts in a carrier bag
and the man was rushed to Broomfield Hospital in Essex. Over the course of an operation lasting
approximately ten hours, surgeons painstakingly reconstructed the connections between
Patel’s bones, nerves and tendons. He spent 20 days in the hospital and had another operation in
which skin and blood vessels were transferred from his thigh to his hand. In what was deemed as a
remarkable recovery process, only five weeks from the accident, Patel had already regained feeling
and partial movement in his fingers. Number 5 Wang Jin
On December the 11th of 2013, an 18-year-old worker suffered a life-changing accident
at a factory in southern China. Wang Jin’s hands were horrifically mangled after being
crushed and torn from the wrists by a malfunctioning industrial hammer.
Colleagues rushed him to Xiang Ya Hospital, in Hunan Province’s capital of Changsha,
along with what was left of his broken hands and fingers. Some of the teenager’s bones were
shattered beyond repair and required permanent removal. In lieu of him becoming a double amputee,
surgeons decided to make Jin a new pair of hands from what could be saved of his palms and digits.
They attached the left little finger onto the right hand, which still had a functioning thumb.
From his left hand they removed the middle finger but kept the index and ring fingers which were
then connected to the left wrist. The end result of the nine-hour procedure was Jin being given a
set of pincer-like appendages. Less than a month from the accident, the teenager was reported as
being able to bend the reattached fingers. Number 4 Stephanie Adkins
Ohio woman Stephanie Adkins faced a long road to recovery, in June of 2016,
after she was scalped by an industrial machine at the Columbus factory where she’d worked for about
eight months. 30-year-old Adkins had bent down to pick something from the floor, on June the 8th,
when her hair was pulled into the drive shaft of a metal sheet cutting machine. Other workers heard
Adkins screaming in excruciating pain as her hair was ripped from her head along with the skin on
her neck, forehead, eyes and ear. Colleagues had to unravel her scalp from the machine before the
woman was rushed to a local hospital. On June the 14th, less than a week from the accident,
Adkins underwent a skin graft in which surgeons used blood vessels and veins from her leg to
repair the damage to her head. The operation was successful but it was deemed the woman
would need to have more reconstructive work in the future. As of the latest updates on her situation,
doctors were concerned about the damage to her eyes which she still wasn’t able to open. Adkins
had suffered scratched corneas and it was unclear in what measure her vision could be restored.
Number 3 Yaneth Valladares A single mother-of-three suffered fatal crushing
injuries following an accident at a processing plant in Fresno County, California, in January
of 2020. Yaneth Valladares, aged 33, was removing debris from a Stem Grading Line machine, used to
break up bunches of raisins. It was the second season that she worked for a labor contractor
named Blessed Harvest. Valladares was reported to have worn loose clothing which she’d gotten
caught in a machine. It caused her to be pulled into it and suffer devastating head injuries.
Other workers were within several feet of her as the incident unfolded and one of them turned off
the power. Witnesses called 911 but Valladares was no longer breathing by the time first responders
arrived at the scene, as she’d succumbed to severe head trauma. The coroner and the California
Department of Occupational Safety and Health were called in to investigate. The aim, aside
from establishing an official cause of death, was to determine if Valladares had been adequately
trained in operating the machinery and if the plant had violations leading up to the accident.
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Number 2 Guisselle Espinoza
In 2016, a Chilean teenager suffered a gruesome workplace accident at an automobile workshop
in Valparaíso. 18-year-old Guisselle Espinoza had studied Industrial Mechanics
at a local high school and was reportedly only a few days into her job at Hernández Motores.
As Espinoza’s back was turned, her hair got caught in a machine that she’d been operating.
The teenager was forcefully pulled back and, in an attempt to avoid further damage,
launched herself out of the industrial machine’s grip. Within seconds, a vast swathe of Espinoza’s
hair was forcefully torn from her scalp. She was rushed to Valparaíso Naval Hospital and,
three months after the incident, still suffered from its physical and psychological implications.
In May of 2016, Espinoza demanded that the workshop’s operators answer for the damage she’d
suffered. However, reports from local outlets indicated that the company denied responsibility,
alleging that Espinoza hadn’t been assigned to the machine but had approached it out of “curiosity”.
Number 1 Nigel Ackland
In 2006, British man Nigel Ackland accidentally got his right arm trapped in an industrial blender
at a smelting plant. The machine ravaged his limb and, looking back on the incident,
Ackland would remember instantly knowing, amidst the intense pain, that he’d lost the
lower half of his arm. Nevertheless, doctors battled to save it for roughly half a year,
a period during which Ackland underwent multiple operations and suffered recurring infections.
He ultimately decided to have a below the elbow amputation but, after the procedure, was left with
a flared stump and difficulty finding suitable prosthetics. Ackland’s range of movements was
limited, for several years, to what he could do with a replacement hook. However, in May of 2012,
he was contacted by innovative prosthetics company RSLSteeper and asked if he wanted to
test out their new bebionic3, multi-articulating myoelectric arm, which at the time was amongst
the most advanced in the world. It operated through sensors that detected flexing of
the muscles in the upper arm, similar to how a human limb naturally operates. Ackland was one
of only seven people to be given the chance to test out the arm. Before long, he was thrilled
with the efficiency of the prosthetic which he claimed made him feel “like the Terminator”.
Thanks for watching! Which would be a worse way to go: being crushed in a hydraulic press
OR put through an industrial blender? Let us know in the comments section below!