He was hard at work removing a “ring” stuck on a man’s penis in a hospital’s intensive care unit.

“It took me three hours to remove the ring,” he recalled of the incident in 2018, adding the man’s penis had turned blue by then as the ring had been on for so long that it had restricted the blood flow.

Though rare, it was not the first time that Rahmat or his colleagues had been called to remove rings from where they did not belong.

In this case, the ring was a modified car bearing.

“In some cases, the ring is from the upper part of a plastic bottle. The harder the material is, the longer it takes to remove it,” said Rahmat, who is with the Sungai Buloh fire and rescue station.

Fortunately for the victims, the fire and rescue department has the right tools and know-how to help them.

These tools include a modified grinder powered by compressed air instead of electricity. This way, the tools are cordless and allow for maximum flexibility for the firemen.

Rahmat’s colleague, Mohd Izad Azrai Subery, said victims use rings to improve their performance in the bedroom, but problems arise when they do not remove them afterwards.

“Some just leave it on for several days. They think nothing can happen to them. They don’t know that their veins are slowly being clogged,” he said.

In the past five years, the Selangor fire and rescue department has rescued 19 victims who have got themselves in such a bind.

Department chief Norazam Khamis said a failure to remove penis rings in time could result in permanent damage and, in the worst case scenario, having to have the penis removed.

For adventurous men looking to try something new, Norazam only has one piece of advice: “Please don’t do weird stuff.”