A tree pruner found himself in a perilous situation when he became inverted high above the Bloomfield neighborhood in Pittsburgh. As reported by WPXI, emergency services were dispatched to the 200 block of Amboy Way around 1:30 p.m., where they found the man suspended upside down about 30 feet off the ground, secured only by his waist harness.
Responders, including firefighters and medics, were able to quickly marshal their resources, deploying a ladder truck and rope lowering system to safely extricate him from his precarious situation just before 2 p.m. The man maintained alertness throughout the ordeal and was responsive when brought down to ground level for medical attention.
"He's extremely lucky that we have our rescue trucks here from EMS, police and obviously fire with that high purchase with that ladder to get him out," CBS News Pittsburgh quoted Pittsburgh public information officer Cara Cruz. "Once you're inverted for that long — a little over half an hour, he was extricated just before 2 o'clock — there can be some blood flow issues, according to the medics here on scene, so he's been transported just to be evaluated," Cruz added. "He's alert, he's conscious, he's talking, so, like I said, that harness was a really big deal. It could have been much, much worse here today." The man has since been taken to the hospital for further evaluations to ensure his health remains uncompromised.
