Belleville, Ont., man whose arm was severed in a workplace accident is doing well

A Belleville, Ont. man who got his arm trapped in a meal grinding machine in a workplace accident is doing well at home.

“This is the most it has ever moved,” says Heather Lane, the girlfriend of Haven Marshall, on a home video.

On the video you can see fingers on Marshall’s right hand showing slight movement.

Twenty-year-old Haven Marshall’s arm was severed off in a meat grinder at JBS Foods Canada in Belleville on Dec. 30 last year, his first new job.

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“He was going into (the machine) to pull meat out of the gears”, says Lane, “It then turned on and then turned off.”

Marshall is deaf and speaks through his girlfriend, Ms. Lane.

Marshall says he was cleaning the machine at the end of his shift that day.

“He said nobody looked under … he was underneath the machine … and he says that nobody looked under to see if anybody was under there,” says Lane.

Marshall was rushed to Kingston General Hospital (KGH) and underwent 11 hours of surgery to reattach his right arm.

“It was like in the middle of his forearm,” says Lane, lifting her arm to demonstrate where Marshall’s arm was severed.

Marshall spent seven days in the ICU at KGH, undergoing four more surgeries and skin grafts to repair his dominant arm — and Marshall is a man who uses both hands as his voice.

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“He feels trapped, because that’s how he communicates”, says Lane, “He can’t do anything.”

In early February, Marshall will once again go under the knife, undergoing surgery to reattach the severed nerves, now severely damaged. Nerves from his legs will be transplanted to his arm.

“So they are essentially useless and they have to take the nerves out of his arm, because they don’t work,” says Lane.

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Marshall’s doctors say it could take up to a year to heal and hopefully he will regain the full use of his arm, but time will only tell.