HomeMy WebLinkAboutFarming '88, 1988-03-30, Page 36PAGE 12. FARMING ’88, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1988.
Memory of form accident still vivid
Charles C. Culbert
Call:
529-7571
R.R.6
Goderich
•Backhoeing & Tiling
•Drains, field drains
•Septic tanks & weeper beds
Culbert Insulation
•Houses, barns, new buildings
•Sprayed on urethane foam
I
The guest speaker at the 15th annual conference of the Farm Safety
Association Inc. earlier this month, Neil Stapleton treats round bales
with a lot more respect since his spine was shattered when one fell on
him from a loader 14 months ago. With the help of him family and a
caring community, he has been able to stay in farming.
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9 su9aT - 6* coo^s.^ng •
edNeil Stapleton of RR 2, Auburn,
is lucky to be alive, but the trauma
of the farm accident which left him
without the use of his lower legs
and feet 14 months ago still makes
him shake when he talks about it.
“I’m surprised at my reaction
still,” the West Wawanosh farmer
says. “It’s over and done with, but
my stomach still churns when I
think of it -1 can recall even the
smallest detail of that day.”
The accident happened just
before noon on February 3, 1987,
the date burned into his memory.
He admits it was entirely due to his
own carelessness, saying that he,
like most other farmers he knows,
would never have rated himself
“high” in regard to safety con
sciousness - “you just do the job
however you can to get it done,
especially if you’re in a hurry.”
Neil was in a hurry that mild
February day, trying to finish
bedding a pen of steers before
dinner. He was aware that the
spear mounted on the tractor
loader had not gone completely
into the big round bale of straw he
had to lift, but when he tried to set it
deeper, the tractor spun in the
slushy snow, so he backed away
from the yard, although he was
aware that the bale was drooping a
bit on the loader. .
Ashe tried to back up onto the
again as he tried to climb over the
small ridge of ice at the edge of the
lane, and without giving the bale
another thought, he instinctively
raised the loader to its highest
point, to shift more weight to the
rear wheels. At this point, the bale
was almost directly overhead.
The tractor still refused to grip,
so he again instinctively began
rocking it from third gear to
reverse, and it was in the midst of a
gear change when the bale fell,
bouncing off Neil’s neck and back,
taking the whole 1,000 lb. impact
on his hips and legs, and driving his
torso forward to twist the steering
wheel as it hit.
He remembers vividly thinking
“that bale hit me 1 ” atthe instant of
impact, butfeltnoimmediate pain,
although he looked at his left foot
and felt somehow it was not part of
him.
“I tried to move it, and nothing
happened, so I wiggled my knees,
and they moved - I remember the
feeling of relief that I wasn’t totally
paralyzed from the waist down.”
Then the pain hit, tearing
through his lower back as he still
lay partly sprawled over the
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twisted steering wheel, and he
hollered for help. Luckily Nancy,
his wife, was working in a barn
nearby and heard him and came
running over without being in
stantly aware of what had happen
ed - the bale, as it fell, had bounced
several yards away from the
tractor.
Neil never lost consciousness
throughout the entire ordeal, and
in factwas to endure the next 11
hours with little relief from the pain
and shock as trained personnel
worked frantically over him.
He was able to tell Nancy what
had happened, and she ran to call
the ambulance, which took close to
half an hour to cover the 18 miles
from Wingham to the farm, during
which time both the Stapletons and
the neighbours who had gathered
had the sense not to move the
injured man, but just to support
him with their presence and their
own agony.
The Stapletons have nothing but
praise for the Wingham ambu
lance - those guys really know what
they’re doing, Neil says with
admiration. While waiting, he had
Continued on page 13