Scaffolders come to aid of woman impaled on railings after fall in Brighton's Old Steine (From The Argus)

Scaffolders come to aid of woman impaled on railings after fall in Brighton's Old Steine

10:30pm Wednesday 9th September 2009

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Scaffolders have told how they came to the aid of a woman who plummeted 30ft from a window in Brighton’s Old Steine onto iron railings below this morning.

The 36-year-old woman shocked onlookers when she fell without a sound from the second storey flat, crashing onto iron railings.

One metal spike speared the woman’s leg. She is now said to be in a serious condition.

Police cordoned off the Old Steine as a doctor was flown to the scene and firefighters cut through the railings in a desperate bid to free the woman.

She was taken to The Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, with part of the railing still sticking from her shin.

Hundreds watched as the drama unfolded at about 11.30am this morning.

Scaffolders working on a building site next door said the woman had fallen backwards out of the open window.

Kevin Adams, Ben Allcutt Alan Trussler, Lawrence McMahon and William Carlyle from Pavilion Scaffolding were some of the first to reach the woman.

Mr Adams and Mr Allcutt, both 24, held the woman up as she hung from the railing by her shin.

Mr Adams said: “I saw her open the window, turn round and fall.

“We had to get the ladders down and use them to take her body weight to stop her leg being ripped off.

“We had to tie a tourniquet round her leg to stop the bleeding, but there wasn't much blood.

“There was no one else about so we had to do something.

“We were trying to hold her up and at the same time trying to hold her clothes on because she was hanging upside down.”

Mr McMahon, 41, called for an ambulance and relayed instructions from the operator to his co-workers.

He said: “When the fire brigade and paramedics arrived they said we'd done a really good job and it could have been a lot worse if she'd been left there.”

Mr Trussler, 23, said he had seen the woman smoking cigarettes minutes before she fell.

He added: “A guy left the building, she went in and five minutes later the window opened.

“I had my back turned and heard something fall.

“I looked and she was lying there with her leg smashed on the railing.

She was impaled on the railings through her shin.

“She didn't scream or shout out. It was just the smallest thud.

“I thought someone had dropped something.”

The workers claimed the woman, who had been conscious throughout the horrific incident, had just said: “I want to go home.”

Emergency services spent an hour at the scene.

Medical staff were flown in by air ambulance and monitored the woman as firemen sliced through the metal railings.

The woman was then carefully stretchered into an ambulance and taken to The Royal Sussex County Hospital with the metal spike still in her leg.

Brighton fire station manager Tony Gurr said: “The scaffolding team saw her and jumped in with their ladders to hold her up.

“They did a superb job in assisting her.

“She had serious injuries to both legs. One was impaled on the railing and the other was injured in the fall.

“It was a painstaking process to cut through the railings to free her.

“I have been in the job 25 years and never seen anything like this.”

A spokesman for Brighton Police said: “All I can say at the moment is that we are investigating reports that a female fell from a window and we have been offering medical staff assistance.

“It is too early to speculate on how or why she fell until we are able to speak to her.”

Hundreds of onlookers watched the painstaking process of releasing the woman and traffic came to a standstill for more than an hour until the emergency services left and the western side of the Old Steine re-opened.

Do you know the woman? Call 01273 544512 or email news@theargus.co.uk

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