Horrifying moment dad turned on TV news to see his son dying live on-air
A horrified father watched his son die before his eyes on live TV.
Mike Barnett became trapped in the grating of a storm drain during a flood in a Yorkshire town as the waters started to rise around him.
Mike had gone to the tropical fish shop where he worked in Hessle, near Hull, on his day off.
He knew his elderly boss would be struggling to keep floodwater out of the shop and had decided to go down to help him, podcaster Mr Ballen explained in a recent video.
When Mike arrived the street behind the store was already flooded and he moved to clear debris from a drain, in the hopes of diverting the cold, dirty, floodwater away from the shop.
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Michael Barnett, 28, died of hypothermia after his leg became trapped in a drain in the devastating floods on June 25, 2007 (Supplied)“Mike very carefully walked off the sidewalk into this very cold muddy water and he began moving in the direction of where he knew the drain was,” Mr Ballen explained.
“As he's walking the water is up to his ankles, maybe up to his knees at some points, but he gets closer and closer to where he knows this drainage ditch is.
“Suddenly Mike begins feeling this unbelievable suction at his feet that began pulling him basically straight down.” The pressure of the rushing water dragged him up against a metal fence that was covering the entrance to the storm drains and then, horrifyingly, Mike’s leg was snapped as it was pulled between the railings.
Mike’s boss, 76-year-old Geoffrey Claxton, heard his screams of pain and caught sight of him through the shop window. He saw the terrible situation Mike was in and immediately dialed 999, the Daily Star reports.
Michael father told reporters he had left his son's room untouched for a decade following his tragic death (Supplied)Emergency services swarmed around the scene, with police, firefighters and rescue crews trying to help free him. In the end it was decided the only way to save Mike’s life would be to amputate his trapped leg.
After calling the emergency services Mr Claxton phoned Mike's dad to tell him what was going on. His father rushed to the scene but he was turned away by the authorities. Police told him that there were already too many people clustered around the drowning man.
“Even though Mike's dad did not want to abandon his son,” Mr Ballen said, “he turned around and headed back home without even speaking to his son.
“When Mike's dad got home he turned on the news, which was showing live coverage of his son trapped in that grate and just a couple of minutes later Mike's dad would watch his son die.”
Live footage from the scene was broadcast on Sky TV, which received heavy criticism for broadcasting Mike's final moments on air.
A spokesman for the broadcaster later said: "There was an overwhelming public interest, and we balanced it against what are quite graphic pictures - graphic, because you know the bloke is going to die.
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"We were very careful working on the footage that we got the consent, in fact the active encouragement, of the father."
The surgeon who was brought in to do the amputation, A&E consultant Herman Vixseboxe, said Michael was unconscious and with no pulse by the time he arrived.
Eventually the plan to remove Mike’s leg had to be abandoned. "It would mean I would need to go underwater and perform any operation underwater," Vixseboxe said. "I would need the help of the diving team, and the diving team at that stage told me that it was not an option."
The eventual cause of Mike Barnett's death was reported hypothermia, a Home Office pathologist, Alfredo Walker, told an inquest.
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