h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At lunchtime today there was a terrible accident at the icebreaker where #1 is working. On of the other engineers was burned by steam. He has 2nd degree burns at most of his body and 3rd degree burns at hands and arms. The face was less burned, but the man had complained about blurred vision.

Luckily - if you can talk about such in these circumstances - was the icebreaker close to the Swedish coast, so about two hours later the wounded man was back on land and on his way to the nearest Uni Hospital. He is now kept under general anaesthesia. The outcome is still unclear.

Even though I'm relieved that my son is unharmed, I'm deeply shaken. My thoughts go to the wounded man and his family.

Good thing he was so close to land! I think burns are about the most terrible injury anyone can have.

And I suppose it's a reminder for you of how dangerous your son's job can be. I'm glad he's ok

What a terrible accident! I'm sorry for this poor man and hope he recovers all right. I am so relieved though, that your son wasn't injured.

this is why we should respect sailors of all kinds. they do dangerous jobs and are usually far away from hospitals and other sources of help

I agree, Pierce. It's not a job I'd want to do, and I have a lot of rspect for the people who do it.

I chatted with late yesterday evening - he said they hardly didn't dare to think what it had been like if this had happened a couple of months ago, when they still were down Antarctica out of reach from helicopters and other means of transportation.

The icebreaker is on it's way to a planned overhaul, ETA any day. They're talking about x-ray the steam system to find any other weak areas.

No new info about the wounded man, though as of late Friday evening.

I'd be more tempted to replace the entire system to make doubly sure nothing else breaks! But that's probably far too expensive and would take too long.

What an awful and terrible accident. It must been a dreadful shock for you amd it must have been a relief to find out that your son was not hurt. I heard similar stories from late dad about Engine drivers on steam trains where they got burned by steam.

My thoughts go out the injured man and his family.

I spoke with earlier this afternoon.

His colleague has 50% burns of his body and will be kept asleep for the next three weeks at least. His airways seems to be unharmed.

The icebreaker is kept at anchor over the weekend and will resume it's trip to the shipyard where the scheduled maintenance will take place after the weekend.

thank bob for modern medicine

Poor person.