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Posted - 15 February 2008 : 2:12:14 PM
A retired surgeon and his brother died in a freak accident when a homemade oxygen chamber exploded in the backyard of a Polokwane, South Africa house - blasting the remains of one of them more than 10m away. The blast ripped open the steel wall of the cylinder, which was between 10cm and 15cm thick, and shattered neighbours' windows. The gruesome incident occurred while the doctor, from Modimolle, was visiting his brother at the Dorp Street house.
Dr Paul Eloff, 76, was undergoing treatment for poor blood circulation inside the pressurised chamber when it exploded on Friday afternoon. His brother, Gerhard, 66, a retired auditor, was standing near the heavy steel cylinder with his 27-year-old son, Georg. Dr Eloff's remains were found about 10m away from the cylinder. Its hatch lay about 15m away.
Georg escaped the brunt of the explosion and suffered only minor injuries. He managed to drag his father around the corner of the house, away from the cylinder. A witness, Marieta Herselman, said police cordoned off a large area around the house. "The remains were taken away in plastic bags. It was horrific.
It was like scraping leaves together in your garden and putting them in plastic bags."
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