Jonathan Metz, the 31-year-old West Hartford, Connecticut resident who sawed off most of his left arm that was trapped in his boiler, is expected to give a press conference at 2 p.m. Metz decided on the drastic measure because, as he was stuck for two days, his arm started to decay and Metz's doctors praised his decision, saying his arm was gangrenous and could have killed him.
These past few days, his parents have been talking about their courageous son. They told the Hartford Courant that their son had just put some lobster in the microwave on June 7 when he went to the basement "for what he thought would be 15 minutes of boiler maintenance. He dropped the vacuum attachment and reached in to retrieve it, but his left arm got stuck. As hours passed in his dark basement, Metz told his parents, he lost track of whether it was day or night. The only way to mark the passage of time was the beeps from his microwave, alerting him every five minutes that his lobster was ready — something his father likened to 'psychological torture.'"
They said their son kicked over some leftover woodworking material to create a seat for himself and that he drank basement water by scooping it up with his sandals. By June 9, Paul Metz said Jonathan took some woodworking tools that were within reach, "The first thing he found was a hacksaw blade, so that's how he started. But it wasn't going fast enough. So then he looked around some more and found a saw blade with bigger teeth on it, which would cut it faster, because every cut was painful... He got down to the final set of nerves, which were in a sheath. He started cutting through there, and he said the pain was so horrific, 'I just couldn't go any further.'"
With his parents and fiancee living in North Carolina, Metz, who lives alone, "couldn't see anyone coming to his rescue." When he didn't respond to an email on the morning of June 7, they called him. When he didn't answer or call back immediately, his parents weren't too worried, since it wasn't unusual for him to take a day to return a call and thought he must be busy. But then they received a phone call on Wednesday, June 9, learning about their son's ordeal. Here's video of them at their son's home:
Jonathan Metz was rescued when a friend, concerned that Metz didn't show up to a Tuesday night softball game, called the police. (Here's his 911 call—he pointed out how Metz hadn't showed up at work but his car was in the driveway with lights on.) Doctors performed surgeries and are prepping him to receive a prosthetic arm. His mother said to the Courant that she understands why he cut his arm off, "He had nothing not to live for. Everybody and everything is positive around him. He had no reason to not fight."
Yesterday, an energy company donated a new boiler to his house yesterday.
