Cos

A Guatemalan immigrant has had his leg and one buttock amputated, according to his wife and friend, after he became trapped in a machine at a Lincoln manufacturing plant on Dec. 14.

Leonardo Cos, 32 — who a friend says is an illegal immigrant — remained in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital last night.

Cos was working at Packaging Concepts Ltd. when he was crushed between a moving portion and a stationary portion of a routing machine, according to a police report. The company has a history of occupational and safety violations dating to 2002 that include exposing workers to a potential carcinogen.

A friend who formerly worked at the company said Cos was apparently pinned face-up on a steel conveyer-like table, as what he described as drills or blades pressed into his abdomen from above. The machine, which bores or stamps designs into wood, “cut a design on his stomach,” according to the friend, who is familiar with the machine. The friend asked for anonymity because he fears immigration authorities.

The friend said Cos is here illegally, and got his job at Packaging Concepts through a temporary agency. The friend also said many immigrants work at the company, at 15 Wellington Rd. The plant manufactures display cases, store fixtures and office furniture.

The Journal was unable to verify the exact nature and depth of the abdominal injury; however a Lincoln Rescue Department report stated that Cos’ stomach “came in contact with a high-speed mechanism of a machine” when the accident occurred.

The friend, who visited Cos at the hospital this week, said Cos has been unconscious since the accident.

“He is [in] very delicate [condition],” said the friend. “He couldn’t speak — not even open his eyes. He’s just laying there. He doesn’t have a leg. He doesn’t move. Only his heart moves.”

The friend said, “Right now, they don’t know if he’s going to get better. The doctors said they are trying to do the best they can to make him survive.” He added, “Only God knows if he’s going to survive.”

When The Journal called Packaging Concepts and asked to speak to a manager, the man who came to the phone would not identify himself and, when asked to verify that the accident occurred, said, “No. Bye,” and hung up. Leonard A. Grossman, of Woodmere, N.Y., who is listed as company president in state corporations records, did not return phone calls.

Cos’ wife, Imelda Cos, spoke to The Journal yesterday by phone from a village in Quichë, Guatemala. Through interpreters, she said doctors were phoning her regularly from Rhode Island Hospital with reports on her husband’s condition.

“They cut off his leg” at the hip, and one buttock, Imelda Cos said. The doctors told her they were evaluating Cos’ condition to determine if he could withstand further surgery yesterday.

She said they have six children, the oldest of whom is 13, and “we are very, very poor.” She said she was not eating or sleeping because she is so distraught.

The accident occurred during the second shift. Lincoln police and rescue responded to the plant at about 8:40 p.m., according to the police report.

Three of Cos’ coworkers told the police that when they discovered that Cos had been “crushed between a moving portion and a stationary portion of a machine … they immediately hit the shut-off and were able to free him from the machine” before emergency personnel arrived.

The police report states that none of the workers had any personal information about Cos, and “there was nobody present at the business to obtain information from.” One coworker “attempted to translate … without much success.”

John McCaughey, chief of the Lincoln Rescue Department, read portions of a department report of the accident to The Journal, but declined to release the full report because of medical privacy issues.

McCaughey said Cos was found “lying inside a machine” when rescue workers arrived.

McCaughey described that as a routing machine.

He said that Cos was conscious when rescue personnel arrived. He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital at 9:22 p.m., McCaughey said. He would not describe what emergency treatment Cos received at the scene.

“He had multiple injuries in the torso area,” said McCaughey. “We transported him to the trauma unit and turned him over to triage.”

The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened its investigation after the company contacted OSHA on Monday, said John Chavez, OSHA regional public affairs director for the U.S. Department of Labor.

“Technically, the company did not have to report it,” said Chavez. He explained that federal law requires a company to report an accident “if three or more people are sent to the hospital, or if one person is killed.”

Told the gravity of Cos’ injuries, Chavez said, “It was probably wise of them to do that. If we have learned of [the accident] it in some other way, OSHA most likely would have looked into it.”

According to a company profile, Packaging Concepts produces annual sales of $28 million and annual revenues of $10 million to $50 million. It employs 225 workers at its 200,000-square-foot facility in Lincoln.

It manufactures office equipment and racks, stands and other display products for companies such as Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Kohls and Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Chavez said that the company has a history of violations. If the Dec. 14 accident involving Cos “results in violations of the OSHA regulations, then certainly a past history would be taken into account,” he said.

In 2003, OSHA fined the company nearly $50,000 for exposing its workers to methylene chloride, a potential carcinogen used in spraying and laminating operations at the plant. The company paid roughly $24,000 in a settlement agreement.

That agreement was one of three such agreements the company entered into since 2002, said Chavez.

One of those agreements stemmed from citations issued in 2002 for failing to protect employees who worked with the chemical methylene chloride, “a potential occupational carcinogen.”

In 2003, OSHA made a repeat visit and found that the company had failed to correct the methylene chloride-associated hazard. At that point it fined the company $49,200 for that failure, and for “repeat and serious violations” of the OSHA Act.

Other serious violations included employee overexposure to methylene chloride and failure to reduce exposure levels to that chemical, as well as failing to put a respiratory protection program in place, or supply workers with the proper respirators. The company was also cited for as electrical safety hazards and an uncovered container of flammable liquid.

Serious violations carry “substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer knew, or should have known, of the hazard,” according to OSHA.

Several repeat citations were issued for not providing washing facilities for employees who work with methylene chloride, and not training employees on how to handle those and other hazardous chemicals used in the workplace.

Other settlements were reached in 2004 and earlier this year.

kziner@projo.com