Firefighters called on to rescue ‘lady of the rings’

A woman in her 70s who wears nine rings found she couldn’t remove them from her fingers and firefighters were needed to end the pain she was suffering.

One of the rings had cut into the flesh, Huangpu District’s fire department said yesterday.

Last Friday, two fire brigades received reports from Shanghai General Hospital that the woman was in pain. The hospital had already managed to take off two of the rings, but couldn’t remove the other seven.

Like many elderly people, the woman whose name wasn’t disclosed, had worn ill-fitting rings for a long time, causing her fingers to become swollen. She ignored the problem until one of the rings tore into her finger, bringing with it “unbearable pain.”

To avoid hurting her, the firefighters first removed the easiest-to-get-at rings, and then used a special set of tools to take off another three.

Removing the six rings took firefighters two hours.

But that still left one ring — the one that had bitten into the flesh.

The firefighters worked with doctors to finally finish the job.

The “lady of rings,” as her helpers called her, is said to have called on Hongkou’s fire brigade to help to remove rings on three other occasions, but every time she had later put the rings back on.