A Denver man suffered a fractured skull, two broken legs and ruptured arteries in his neck after being partially crushed by a trash compactor, KMGH reported.
Scott Walsh, 22, was trying to retrieve a cellphone for a friend after the device had fallen into a trash chute at a Denver apartment complex when he fell into the chute, the television station reported.
"And he was reaching down to get it for her and fell headfirst down the chute," Liz DiSalvo, a friend of Walsh, told KMGH. "When he fell down it activated the compactor and he was in there I would say approximately five minutes."
"They didn't realize it was a garbage compactor at the bottom of the trash chute," Matt Johnson, another friend of Walsh, told the television station.
The weight-activated machine partially crushed Walsh's head, torso and lower body. He broke both of his legs and fractured his skull in two places," KMGH reported.
"I saw him come out of the trash compactor,” Johnson told the television station. “It wasn't a very good scene. He's very lucky to be alive."
Doctors said Walsh did not suffer any brain or spinal damage, KMGH reported.
"It's a miracle," Johnson told the television station.
Friends and colleagues at the Denver pizza restaurant where Walsh works set up a GoFundMe page to help defray medical expenses.
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