What looks like an ordinary workplace accident can quickly become a race against time when a worker’s hand becomes trapped inside a meat grinder.
While doctors are often the first to treat such injuries, there are cases where even hospital teams cannot safely free a trapped limb. That is when Dubai Police’s specialised rescue teams are called in, armed not only with precision equipment, but with engineering expertise that has helped save workers’ hands from amputation.
To Colonel Khalid Al Hammadi, Director of the Search and Rescue Department at Dubai Police’s General Department of Transport and Rescue, rescue teams have responded to multiple incidents involving workers whose hands became trapped inside industrial meat grinders at restaurants and shopping centers.
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According to Emarat Al Youm, Al Hammadi said these accidents are typically caused by a lack of attention, inadequate training, or improper use of machinery that should be fitted with sufficient safety measures to prevent such incidents.
“We don’t only respond to major disasters,” Al Hammadi said. “Our teams are also highly trained to deal with delicate incidents involving trapped limbs or body parts that cannot be safely handled using conventional medical equipment.”
Precision over force
Rather than cutting through machinery indiscriminately, specialised rescue teams use precision cutting tools and carefully planned engineering techniques to dismantle or reverse machine components, reducing further damage to the injured person.
In one case, a worker whose hand was trapped inside a meat grinder was taken to hospital, but doctors were unable to free it. Dubai Police’s technical rescue team used specialised heavy rescue equipment to release his hand after a complex operation, preventing potentially life-threatening complications.
In another incident, a worker became trapped inside a meat grinder at a restaurant and was too critically injured to be transported. Rescue specialists instead traveled directly to the site, freeing the worker before he was rushed to hospital for treatment.
Dubai Police’s most memorable rescues
Colonel Abdullah Ali Beshwah, Head of the Land Rescue Section at Dubai Police, recalled one of the department’s most memorable rescues.
A restaurant worker had suffered severe injuries after his hand became trapped inside a meat grinder and was rushed to hospital. Doctors believed amputating the entire hand was the safest option to prevent serious complications.
Before surgery began, rescue officers requested an opportunity to attempt another solution.
By carefully reversing the grinder’s mechanism and using specialised rescue equipment, they successfully freed the man’s hand. Instead of losing his entire hand, he sustained injuries to only a few fingers.
“The young man expressed immense gratitude, and even the doctors praised the professionalism of the rescue team,” Beshwah said.
More than workplace accidents
Dubai Police said its rescue teams deal with a wide range of technically challenging incidents beyond industrial machinery.
Among them are children whose hands become trapped in escalators or lifts after moments of distraction.
Beshwah recalled one case involving a child whose entire hand became trapped inside an escalator. Rescue teams immediately shut down the escalator, dismantled part of its mechanism and safely freed the child’s hand before more serious injuries occurred.
He warned that children are particularly vulnerable because of curiosity and brief lapses in parental supervision.
“Many children move close to the moving parts of escalators or try to retrieve dropped objects, putting their fingers and hands at serious risk,” he said.
He urged parents never to allow children to use escalators or lifts unsupervised, particularly in busy shopping malls and public spaces, stressing that just seconds of inattention can lead to life-changing injuries.
