PROVIDENCE — The condition of Leonardo Cos, a Guatemalan native who lost a leg and buttock after an accident at a Lincoln manufacturing plant on Dec. 14, has been upgraded from critical to serious at Rhode Island Hospital.

Cos, 32, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was working on a second shift at Packaging Concepts Ltd. when he became caught in a machine. Coworkers hit a safety switch and freed him, according to a police report. Rescue personnel took him to Rhode Island Hospital’s emergency room.

Carlos Avila Sandoval, Guatemalan consul general for Rhode Island, said Cos had regained consciousness this week, after apparently being in a coma since the accident.

“He woke up and spoke to us a little bit from time to time,” said Avila.

Avila, who visited Cos yesterday and Thursday, said he does not believe Cos understands the gravity of his injuries. Avila said doctors told him Cos’ leg was amputated because a major artery was severed; Cos also suffered devastating injuries to his lower torso and buttock.

Said Avila, “He’s alert … he’s doing well — I quote ‘well’ — considering what happened to him.”

Avila added: “The role we can play here is to see that those rights that he has as a worker, even though he has no legal papers to stay in the country, are respected.” He said it is also his job to assist any Guatemalan national in this area who needs help, regardless of legal status, particularly if they have no next-of-kin to call on.

Cos’ wife lives in Guatemala. In a recent phone interview through interpreters, the wife said the couple has six children, and they were “very very poor.” She said she is receiving regular updates from his doctors at Rhode Island Hospital.

Two people who spoke to The Journal on condition of anonymity gave different accounts of the accident:

This week, a man with knowledge of the accident said Cos fell forward into the machine, and that his stomach was cut and his leg was severed — or nearly severed.

Earlier, a friend of Cos and former employee of the company, said he learned from eyewitnesses that Cos was pinned face-up onto a steel conveyer-like table, and his stomach was cut by blades pressing down from above. He too, said Cos’ leg was severely injured and an artery was cut.

Both men described the machine as a “CNC,” or a computer-numerically-controlled” machine. They explained that an operator can key in an order placed by a company, and the CNC machine will produce accordingly. The company, at 15 Wellington Rd., manufactures display cases, store fixtures and office furniture, according to corporation records.

A Lincoln police report states that Cos became crushed between a moving portion and stationary portion of a routing machine, and that rescue personnel told the police “that the victim’s injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.”

According to Chief John McCaughey of the Lincoln Rescue department, Cos’ stomach “came in contact with a high-speed mechanism of a machine” during the accident. Cos suffered multiple injuries “to the torso area.” The full report has not been released.

Company officials have declined to discuss the accident. It is now under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration division of the U.S. Department of Labor.

“We are gathering information to determine whether or not there are violations, and that process is still ongoing,” said Ted Fitzgerald, an OSHA spokesman in Boston. “We’ve been on-site, and we may be back on-site.”

Packaging Concepts Ltd. has been cited for numerous serious OSHA violations since 2002, including for exposing workers to methylene chloride, a potential occupational carcinogen, and for failing to make clear “the techniques to be used to lock or tag out each type of machine.”

John Chavez, also an OSHA spokesman in Boston, was asked whether safety guards and “lock-out tag-out” procedures would prevent a worker from being trapped in a machine.

Chavez said “lock-out tag-out … refers to specific practices and procedures to safeguard employees” from accidental start-up of a machine during service or maintenance. Machine guarding “is a separate issue which would also be looked at as part of an OSHA accident investigation involving a machine.”

On Thursday, company president Leonard Grossman issued a statement expressing “deep concern for Mr. Cos and his family.”

“Our heartfelt best wishes go out to him for recovery from this terrible accident,” Grossman said.

The company is cooperating with OSHA officials in their accident investigation, “therefore it would be inappropriate for the company to comment further about the matter at this time,” Grossman said.

kziner@projo.com