Retired Surgeon Blown To Pieces

[bloodrayne]

Homemade pressure chamber blows two men to bits

Death chamber: A retired surgeon and his brother died in a freak accident when a homemade oxygen chamber exploded in the backyard of a Polokwane house - blasting the remains of one of them more than 10m away.

The blast ripped open the steel wall of the cylinder, which was between 10cm and 15cm thick, and shattered neighbours' windows.

The gruesome incident occurred while the doctor, from Modimolle, was visiting his brother at the Dorp Street house.

Dr Paul Eloff, 76, was undergoing treatment for poor blood circulation inside the pressurised chamber when it exploded on Friday afternoon.

His brother, Gerhard, 66, a retired auditor, was standing near the heavy steel cylinder with his 27-year-old son, Georg.

Dr Eloff's remains were found about 10m away from the cylinder. Its hatch lay about 15m away.

Escaped

Georg escaped the brunt of the explosion and suffered only minor injuries.

He managed to drag his father around the corner of the house, away from the cylinder.

He was later admitted to the Limpopo Mediclinic in Polokwane where he was treated before being discharged yesterday.

None of the occupants of the house, who included Gerhard's wife, Isabel, and a one-year-old child, was injured.


A witness, Marieta Herselman, said police cordoned off a large area around the house.

"The remains were taken away in plastic bags. It was horrific. It was like scraping leaves together in your garden and putting them in plastic bags."

A Limpopo police spokesman, Superintendent Ronel Otto, confirmed that the chamber was a "homemade thing and they didn't have a licence for it".

"As far as the precise legislation or regulations governing its use, I'm not sure," she said.

Otto said family members told police the hyperbaric chamber had been with them "for years and that they regularly used it for treatments".

"The whole thing exploded. Basically, it looks like a rain tank, except it's smaller. It now looks like a firecracker after it's been set off."

According to a family member, the chamber was constructed and operated by Gerhard Eloff.

Hyperbaric treatment, once used primarily to relieve divers of a dangerous condition called decompression sickness or "the bends", is now used to treat a range of ailments.

These include carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene, problem wounds, anaemia, soft tissue infections and bone infections. Hyperbaric therapy is also sometimes used to treat burns.

[friday13thfan]

HOLY SHITAKE MUSHROOMS i feel sorry for there familes