This has been Patty’s dream.
She always wanted a restaurant.
I retired from construction and said let’s do it.
We took every penny we had and stuck in it and so far it has worked out for us.
I have waited tables for 30 years.
It is my home and it is my life.
I serve farmers and anybody traveling through on highway 20, I serve them.
It was a play on words when we started.
Where do you want to eat at?
You always want to go to grandma’s house.
Grandma’s always had the best food, better food.
The community around here has always kept us going.
We bring people in from Sioux Center, Sergeant Bluff, Hartington; we bring people in from
everywhere.
It is a gathering place.
We used to joke around and call this granny’s diner feed, seed and gravel lot because they
have traded cattle in the parking lot, they’ve done deals, and the ethanol plant down here
was basically planned back here in the dining room.
We went out to start the tractor and that’s when it happened.
The battery was dead so he put the battery charger on it.
I poured the gas in it and I reached over, it has an old pull choke on it, so I bent
over the tractor and pulled the choke out and hit the starter button.
When I shut the tractor off I turned around and looked and I saw
Alex bent down over the back of the tractor.
So I went back and grabbed him by the waist and I was going to pull him up but when I
grabbed him, I looked over his shoulder and I saw his hand lying on the ground and his
arm still stuck up to the PTO.
I grabbed my knife and I went back out there and started cutting him loose.
When I was cutting Alex loose, there was a piece of skin still holding the hand on.
His hand was on the ground but his arm was up there and the skin was still holding it
on.
I actually thought when I was cutting him loose to go ahead and cut that and go ahead
and free him.
By not cutting that, we found out later on, they took his nerves and his tendons and balled
them up in a bundle, I shut that tractor off just at the right time and it didn’t cut
all the way through them.
They life-flighted him to Mercy and the emergency room doctor came out and said you aren’t
going to believe this.
He’s got movement, he’s got feeling and he’s got a good pulse and that’s when
they took him to Omaha.
The whole drive down there all I can picture is a stub.
I knew the hand was gone.
There was no doubt in my mind that the hand was gone.
They said The Nebraska Medical Center and we had no idea what we were getting into down
there.
The following Sunday they took him in to surgery and that’s when they pinned his bones all
back together.
A rod, plate, eight or nine screws, 44 staples and an ungodly amount of stitches, I have
no idea how many stitches.
It was a very substantial injury.
There were multiple fractures, the skin was open and his muscles were injured.
There is no question that power take-off engine injuries can result in complete amputation
of limbs, legs or arms.
His arm was part way through that process.
It was really almost ripped off.
There were muscles torn through tendons and the bones were terribly fractured.
A situation like this is what I considered a limb-threatening problem.
As young as he is, it is pretty remarkable how calm he was and I’m sure his parents
and grandparents were incredibly terrified and upset about it.
He was really tough and I was impressed.
He is so young and kids heal so much faster and better than adults do.
His hand is working great.
Some of the muscles have been significantly injured but he has really healed them well.
When you see something that could have resulted in him losing his arm and now he is doing
well, that’s great and obviously a nice thing to be able to help somebody like that.
Alex is doing awesome.
He is back in school and his grades never went down.
He is carrying his A’s and B’s all the way through now.
He can move his fingers and he can wave.
He was riding a four-wheeler the other day, he is not supposed to but that is how good
he is doing.
He is going to go back out for football this season.
From what I saw, these people do down there and from what I saw just walking around the
hospital, The Nebraska Medical Center, they are just all wonderful all the way from even
housekeeping.
We were in the ICU and those people up there, those girls, those nurses on both floors are
just remarkable.
I’m sorry remarkable isn’t a very good word.
We would tell them they rocked.
I am not a doctor person but they restored my faith.
They were worried about him and cared for him.
I was impressed, like Paul says from the housekeeping all the way, it was a really good experience.
I was really happy with the hospital up there the staff, nurses and everybody.
Miracles happen at 42nd and Dodge and I believe that and I tell everybody, you want medical
service you go to 42nd and Dodge.
For being a bad experience it was a good experience.
I’m glad we went there.
I don’t think I would have been any happier anywhere else.