Teen worker severs arm while cleaning pasta machine at New York restaurant on Canadian border

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MASSENA, N.Y. – A teenage employee at an Italian restaurant in northern New York has severed his arm while cleaning a pasta machine.

A spokeswoman for Massachusetts General Hospital tells The Associated Press that 17-year-old Brett Bouchard was listed in serious condition there Sunday morning.

He was flown there after the accident Thursday night at Violi’s Restaurant in Massena on the Canadian border.

Restaurant manager Mia Violi tells The Watertown Daily Times that Bouchard was cleaning the pasta machine when his right arm got caught and severed at the elbow. She says employees are trying to figure out how the machine got activated while he was cleaning it.

It’s not yet clear whether the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the accident.