Saturday, November 1, 2008

Girl freed after arm gets stuck (Home Made)







Girl freed after arm gets stuck in old pickup bed


3-year-old OK following ordeal at family farm

Monday, October 27 | 10:22 p.m.

By JOHN BRANTON
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER


Halloween or not, it may be awhile before 3-year-old Marina Dally wants to visit a pumpkin patch again.

On Monday, Marina got her arm stuck in a hole in an old pickup bed, which was being used as a trailer to haul pumpkins at her grandparents’ farm in the Proebstel area northeast of Orchards.

“We tried to get it out,” her grandmother, Helen Boldt, said later. “First we put dish soap on it, but it was swollen.”

The Vancouver Fire Department was called to the farm at 18905 N.E. 83rd Street shortly before noon, said Chris Moen, firefighter-spokesman.

They found Marina’s hand still locked in a stake pocket of the pickup bed, which had been removed from the truck’s cab and still had wheels on it for use as a utility trailer.

And she wasn’t very happy about it.

“She had family there kind of calming her down,” Moen said. “But whenever we put a tool to use, a saw or anything for cutting, she just cried loudly. It reminded me of a 3-year-old at a doctor’s office, when she saw the needle coming.”

Firefighters called for a heavy-rescue team equipped with bolt cutters, reciprocating saws and other tools.

They worked for more than an hour, first cutting away the outer metal until they could see what was holding the toddler’s hand.

Finally Marina was free, exhausted and hollering but with no damage to her arm and hand that needed hospital treatment.

Later Monday afternoon she was playing and back to her old self, Boldt said.

Her husband, Gary Boldt, is a brother of Republican County Commissioner Marc Boldt.

John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.

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