A 15-year-old apprentice has died after being tied up and having a high-pressure air hose forced into his bum for a workplace ‘joke’.
The incident took place in a wood workshop in Bozova, Sanliurfa, Turkey, on November 14, with the boy dying in hospital on the morning of November 19.
Muhammed Kendirci had been working as an apprentice when he was allegedly overpowered by coworker Habip Aksoy and an unidentified friend, who first tied his hands for what they claimed was a ‘prank’.
His trousers were then forcibly removed and high-pressure air from a compressor was directed into his bum.
But the so-called prank exploded his intestines causing catastrophic injuries and leaving him fighting for his life when emergency services were called to the scene.
Mr Kendirci was first taken to Bozova Mehmet Enver Yildirim State Hospital before being transferred to Balikligol State Hospital.
He was later moved again to Harran University Research and Application Hospital, where medics confirmed severe internal organ damage.
The apprentice was placed in intensive care and remained under treatment for five days before passing away.
Police opened an investigation and Aksoy was taken into custody.
He was initially released under judicial control but this decision was overturned on appeal.
A warrant for his detention was issued, he was arrested again, and this time he was remanded by the court.
The investigation is ongoing, but the case is not the first time high-pressure air hoses have caused catastrophic – and sometimes fatal – injuries.
In Brazil, 17-year-old car wash worker Wesner Moreira da Silva died in agony in Campo Grande after colleagues blasted a high-pressure air hose up his backside as a ‘prank’, causing his intestines to explode.
Two men were later jailed for 12 years over his death after judges rejected their claim it had been a joke that went wrong.
And, in 2023 a 16-year-old boy died of internal injuries after a man inserted a compressed air hose into his rectum ‘for fun’ at an Indian factory.
Motilal Sahu, 16, had been joking with factory employee Dheerajsingh Goud, 21, when the worker grabbed the hose pipe of his cleaning machine and shoved it into the teenager’s rectum.
Police said the sudden burst of air in his rectum severely damaged Motilal’s intestines and he collapsed on the floor of the Poona Flour and Foods processing unit in the town of Hadapsar near Pune City, western India.
Motilal was rushed to a nearby private hospital where he died of internal injuries on Monday morning, senior inspector Ravindra Shelke told the.
Even medical professionals have underestimated the dangers.
In another Brazilian case, two doctors were indicted for manslaughter after using a compressed-air hose through a rubber cannula in a bid to blow a popcorn kernel out of two-year-old Ravi de Souza Figueiredo’s nose.
His lungs and stomach ruptured, he was sent home with medication for ‘gas’, and he later collapsed and died, with police saying the improvised compressed-air procedure was not in line with standard practice.
Experts have repeatedly warned that compressed air should never be directed at or into the body because of the risk of deadly internal injuries.
