Man's hand severed at work

The man is recovering in hospital after his hand was cut off in a workplace accident. Photo / File

A 43-year-old Dunedin man is recovering in hospital after his hand was cut off in a workplace accident.

The man's right hand was severed while he was working at Ellis Fibre, a company which makes bedding products, in Kaikorai Valley about 6.20pm last Wednesday.

The man was taken to hospital with "serious but not life threatening injuries" by ambulance.

St John spokeswoman Alena Lynch applauded the actions of staff at Ellis Fibre, who stemmed the flow of bleeding and wrapped a clean towel around the injury.

"He could have been in a worse condition, particularly with loss of blood [if not for their actions]."

"It goes to show that some first-aid knowledge can go a long way in helping a patient and helping their recovery," Ms Lynch said.

Ellis Fibre managing director Glenn Alexander said he had been in touch with the man daily since the incident and he was "recovering well".

The company's main concern was for the "staff member and his family", but it had started an investigation into the accident.

"We are still interviewing staff... [but we will] obviously leave a bit of time until we interview the employee concerned," Mr Alexander said.

He expected their investigation to be completed within 10 days.

The Department of Labour was also investigating and visited Ellis Fibre soon after the accident, he said.

"We are also going to conduct a complete review of our whole organisation just to double check, because obviously we don't want this sort of incident to happen again," he said.

He praised the actions of his staff in what were "difficult circumstances".

"They looked after the guy, called the ambulance immediately, attended to him, comforted him, all those things," he said.