A MAN was left red-faced when firefighters had to be called to hospital to remove a tool from his penis.

The man became stuck after his penis swelled up in the ring spanner on Monday and was he unable to remove it.

Tweed firefighters say it not uncommon for them to be called to such jobs where people leave it too late to ask for help.

“It’s really dangerous because inevitably people leave it too long to come see us because they are embarrassed, or say my wife said to put butter on it, sleep on it and it will go down,” said senior firefighter Peter Sutherland.

“It never does.”

Mr Sutherland said one man took his girlfriend with him to the hospital.

“The blood goes into the appendage whether it’s a finger or whatever, it just swells up and by the time you realise it’s too late,” he said.

“We use a tiny angle grinder that’s air operated and use measuring tape to protect the skin and slowly zip away at it while keeping water running on it so it doesn’t get too hot.

“It’s a pretty delicate operation especially where it is, there’s a lot of blood vessels.

“We do quite a few of them.”

Originally published as Firefighters use grinder to free tool