Man with severed leg refuses ambulance ride without mobile phone: Dubai rescue unit reveals shocking incidents

Land Rescue chief reveals unusual incidents out in the field, as well as statistics showing 20 per cent increase in people being trapped in vehicles following crashes.

DUBAI // A man with a severed leg refuses to take an ambulance without having his mobile phone in his hand. Another is upset about losing the fuel that he put in his car just before he wrote the vehicle off.

These were among some of the more unusual cases a rescue unit has had to deal with.

Maj Abdullah Bisho, director of the land rescue unit at Dubai Police, a veteran with more than 20 years’ experience, said that although the job of an emergency response unit was demanding, it was anything but dull.

“There was a case in which we rescued a man whose leg was almost completely severed and only hanging in place because of his trousers,” said Maj Bisho.

“We were rushing to get him into the ambulance and he refused to get in without his mobile phone.”

When the unit rescued another man who had been in a car crash that had destroyed a new Honda Civic, officers found him uninjured but extremely upset.

“The car was gone; there was nothing left of it; and it’s a miracle that the man survived and was in one piece,” said the major.

“We were trying to make him feel better about losing his vehicle and told him that his insurance would cover it, but he wouldn’t be consoled.

“His response was that he wasn’t upset about his car but about the Dh60 worth of petrol he just put in it.”

Maj Bisho said that victims in shock often turned aggressive, hurling obscenities and punches at the officers who were trying to help them.

“People stuck in vehicles are in a traumatising situation; they are sometimes in extreme pain and are disorientated, so we understand their frustration and we don’t take it personally,” he said.

“They’ll thank us later.”

Maj Bisho released figures that showed accidents in which people were trapped in vehicles had increased in the past year by a fifth – to 170, from 2013.

He said 60 people died last year and more than 290 were injured. In 2013, his unit recorded 136 cases, in which 43 people were killed and 239 were injured.

The increase in casualties was also attributable to more incidents involving buses.

“Whenever there are cases of people trapped in cars, we are the ones commissioned to go to the scene and get them out, and we have to get to the scene of the accident within 12 minutes of receiving the call from the operations room,” he said.

The unit has 29 officers on duty, in eight locations in the city.

Maj Bisho said there was also an increase in the number of cases of children being left locked in vehicles.

The unit recorded 143 cases last year, compared with 130 cases in 2013.

“These are big numbers for Dubai, but thankfully, there were no casualties,” he said. “Parents should be very careful. It’s never clear how long a child can be in that situation.”