Conn. man who attempted amputation of arm stuck in furnace has successful surgery, in recovery

Conn. man who tried to cut off arm in recovery

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — The family of a Connecticut man who tried to amputate his own arm after being trapped for days while working on his basement furnace said they expected him to make a full recovery and that he was ready for life with an artificial limb.

Jonathan Metz got his left arm caught Sunday in his furnace boiler as he reached in to retrieve a tool that he had dropped inside, his father said. Metz was rescued Wednesday, a day after he used his own tools and cut through most of his left arm when he smelled his flesh beginning to rot.

“I think it’s pretty amazing that he was able to think pretty rationally given the situation,” said his father, Paul Metz, 70.

A Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center spokeswoman said the 31-year-old West Hartford resident was awake, alert and speaking after undergoing a 2 1/2-hour muscle flap surgery Friday morning.

Doctors said the surgery was needed to prepare the stump of Metz’s arm for a prosthetic. He may be released from the hospital next week, hospital officials said.

Family members, who arrived in Connecticut from Southport, N.C., on Thursday night, said Metz is bruised but lively, and he invited them all to have dinner in his hospital room Friday night.

“He just so happened to have read a lot about prosthetics before this out of curiosity, so he’s very hopeful about his future,” said his mother, Anne Metz, 66.

The Metzes said they were informed of what happened from their younger son in Dallas, who had been told by one of Jonathan Metz’s co-workers at Travelers Insurance via Facebook.

Paul Metz said his son, who lives alone with his beagle, Portia, was working to replace the boiler fins from behind the furnace at the time.

He fashioned a makeshift tourniquet from a torn piece of his shirt and wires to stop the bleeding, Paul Metz said. He used his sandal to scoop water leaking from the furnace to drink.

The family said Metz’s co-workers at Travelers, where he works as a financial manager, began to worry when he was absent from work and a company softball game Tuesday.

Some of them drove to his home, where they found his car parked in the driveway, the lights on inside and his dog barking frantically. The co-workers then called police, who found Metz in the basement.

Firefighters had to rip apart the furnace with heavy tools, including a spreader normally used to take the door off a car, West Hartford Fire Chief Matt Stuart said Thursday.

His fiancee, 30-year-old Melissa Mowder, of Kinston, N.C., said they still plan to get married in November in New Orleans, where they met as students at Tulane University.

“I’m just happy he’s alive,” said Mowder. “He’s incredibly strong. We’ll make it work.”