“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the [sausages] being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.”— Vladimir Nabokov
July 20, 2011
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Martyr - R.I.P. Michael Raper
A 26-year-old sausage factory worker suffered a grisly end when he slipped and fell feet first into a meat grinder which chewed off his legs and killed him.
Father-of-four Michael Raper was trapped from the waist down for two excruciating hours after he become entangled in the huge auger at the Bar S Foods plant in Lawton, Oklahoma.
Amid gruesome scenes co-workers watched in horror before frantic emergency workers managed to cut the machine in half and free him.
Mr Raper was taken to hospital but died the following day.
The aunt of Mr Raper’s fiancee, who he was due to marry in February, told KFOR-TV: ‘He slipped and went into the machine. He was still conscious at the time so I can imagine the agony he was in, and he lost both of his legs.’
Lawton Fire Department Lt Steve Thornton spoke of the terrible sight that greeted his team when they arrived.
He said they found Mr Raper, who was in charge of cleaning the machine, trapped and added that it took a further hour and 45 minutes to free him.
‘His legs were caught in an auger,’ Lt Thornton told OKNEWS.
‘They used a forklift to stabilise the auger while cutting it in two, lifted up the auger and pulled him from the machinery.
It was basically disentanglement because the gentleman was trapped.’
An air ambulance was requested but Mr Raper was taken to hospital by land after the tragedy on Tuesday night.
He was treated at the Comanche County Memorial Hospital where he died on Wednesday from ‘severe injuries’.
