Man 'lucky to be alive' after he was trapped under telegraph pole
Updated
The wife of a man who was trapped under a telegraph pole on a farm south-east of Melbourne has said he is lucky to be alive after he was freed in a major rescue operation.
Odie Barwick, 42, got into trouble while attempting to move the pole, which was on the ground, on a property on Norbury Road at Beaconsfield Upper shortly before 9:00am on Saturday morning.
He cried out for help and his wife, Cathie Barwick, came out to see his leg trapped under the heavy pole, which he was moving to make way for a mulch delivery.
Mr Barwick called the mulch deliverer to explain he would be unable to accept his order.
"He was in a lot of pain and then he cancelled the mulch order," she laughed.
"He called up the mulch guy on the phone while he was pinned and said he wouldn't be able to accept the delivery and then I said: 'It's alright mate, we can handle it'."
The 50-minute ordeal ended when a specialist rescue crew secured the telegraph pole and extracted his leg.
"They did a great job, he was on morphine, so he was smiling through the whole experience being a trooper that he usually is," Ms Barwick said.
"It could've been a lot worse.
"If he had been in a slightly different place, it could have pinned him in a different area so we're really lucky today that the paramedics did such a good job in helping extract him."
Mr Barwick is currently in a stable condition at the Dandenong Hospital but his wife said he could be back gardening as early as tomorrow.
"He's a hardworking guy, we live on a property that requires a lot of maintenance so I'm sure he'll be back out there tomorrow."
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, beaconsfield-upper-3808, vic
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