DIXFIELD – A 10-year employee of the Irving Forest Products Inc. lumber mill in Dixfield suffered a hand injury early Saturday morning and was flown by medical helicopter to a Bay State hospital, according to Irving spokeswoman Mary Keith in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada.

Keith said on Saturday night that the 44-year-old Dixfield man was doing a shutdown procedure at midnight Friday while working in the planer mill area when the accident happened.

During this process, the machine cycles down slower and slower until it stops, she said.

According to Keith, Irving company policy doesn’t allow releasing the names of its workers.

She said the company is still investigating the accident and doesn’t yet have details to release.

“We’re still working to understand what happened,” Keith said. “He has sustained a pressure injury to his hand. There wasn’t a wound and I’m told at the scene that there wasn’t any blood.”

A Med-Care Ambulance took the injured man to Rumford Hospital early Saturday morning. From there, LifeFlight of Maine took him to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Keith said the worker underwent surgery and as of 8:30 p.m. was in a recovery area, waiting for the anesthesia to wear off so he could be returned to his room.

“Indications are that it is not life threatening, so we’re just waiting for a further update and information on the surgery that would have been done to his hand,” Keith said.

Keith said it was the first serious accident since December 2007. In that accident, a 24-year-old worker suffered a suffered a partial hand amputation when his right hand was caught in a blower auger in the mill’s boiler area.

Both accidents occurred late at night.