Hospital helped treat workers buried alive
Labourers Manus Gallagher and Seamus Greene found themselves buried alive when the sewer they were working in beneath St Ann’s Road, Harrow, collapsed one morning in 1975.
Their only warning was a sharp crack before the ceiling caved in leaving the two men trapped in complete darkness by tons of soil.
Mr Gallagher said: "We were looking death in the face all the time. We thought after the first hour that we would never get out. We didn't talk about it a lot. All we could think about was 'get us out of here, get the weight off us.”
Northwick Park Hospital was put on standby as fellow labourers frantically dug their way towards their friends along with the emergency services.
The pair were finally rescued six hours later and treated at the hospital for a fractured pelvis and internal injuries.
One of Manus’s first bedside requests after his procedure was ‘a good big pint of beer’ although he paid tribute to the "marvellous people who had helped in the rescue" including hospital staff.