A man has been taken to hospital with serious injuries after getting stuck in the mud at a field – for nearly 24 hours.
I thought he was dead, says Tommy Eriksson, who found the man.
It was on Tuesday at 1 pm that the man got stuck in the mud at Lake Tåkern in Mjölby municipality, unable to free himself. He was not found until Wednesday morning – by birdwatcher Tommy Eriksson from Motala.
When I walked down towards the lake, I saw a man lying on his back with outstretched arms. I thought: he's dead!
The man came to when he heard Tommy, and it turned out that the two men knew each other beforehand. Both are birdwatchers and had seen each other at the same spot the day before.
He was very dirty and told me that he had been stuck in the mud since 1 pm yesterday. I tried to lift him up but couldn't. I'm old, it was muddy, and I slipped around.
I tried to call the farmer who owns the land for help, but he wasn't at home.
The rescue service was alerted, sending both the fire department and an ambulance. By then, the man had managed to free himself partially, but still needed help from the rescue service.
It was right by a cowshed, so it's trampled and muddy there before you get down to the lake, says Tommy Eriksson.
How the man was able to sit stuck in the mud for so long is still unclear.
"It was pure luck that the man was found when his phone had stopped working and he couldn't alert anyone himself," writes the rescue service in an update.
The man has been taken to hospital. According to Region Östergötland, the man has serious injuries and is hypothermic, reports Expressen.
