I stepped down off the truck to leaving it running I reached over the machine and look at the pump
and to see which way the air was flowing out of the exhausted whether it was socking or blowing
but then that second my jumper and safety vest that I was wearing
got entangled in the PTO shaft that was still running
and that took me in and I was catapulted over the machine from one side to the other
landed on the floor all my jumper thick jumper a shirt
and everything was all ripped off
I remember that was lying on the floor just with my right sleeve left
and obviously my left arm had been torn off completely straightaway
I told my Mum I'm going to go and shoot some crows and won't be long for tea
I just pulled out of the field the quad bike jackknifed
the shotgun was closed it wasn't in the cocked position and it had a safety trigger on
but as the bike went over the butt of the gun hit the ground and set both barrels off into my right leg
We both went up onto the roof we were going along the crawling boards and
he was cleaning one area and I was cleaning the other area
and it's unfortunate for some reason beyond his knowledge and my knowledge the stepped back
and as he stepped back in a bad area he stepped onto a skylight
I can't remember going through the skylight I can't remember stepping back I don't know why I stepped back
I don't know I can't tell you that but I just remember lying on the floor in a lot of agony
They took me into theatre were they made the wound safe
I was operated on for about six hours
Halfway through the operation they came out and told my parents that
they only had one option left and that was to remove the leg to save my life
I heard a crash I was up there a heard a crash
I quickly looked round I wasn't far away from Peter actually
and I just saw his hands going through the roof
turned out he had a broken femur in the middle of his leg
top thigh was straight a clean break
My Mum and Dad were obviously quite upset my Dad was very angry
My Mum was very depressed one of my brothers
he had to attend counselling
things have gone from bad to worse my girlfriend
she was really supportive to begin with and then it all sort of fizzled out
and I went through three or four months of not really leaving the house
sort of got you down you don't think you're in a depression at the time but when you
come out of it you realise that you are to the point were my Dad had to hide the keys to the gun cabinet
Getting back to work it took about a year I think the annoying thing was gone from the person that did
did as much as he could on the farm whether it was day or night
to go and have to ask people to get lift somewhere or wether it was just to make a cup of coffee
You know he was laid off for seven weeks about
so we have to then pay for contractors to come in and do the work what Peter such as driving a combine and things like that
The financial side on the farm you know was obviously was one member of staff down
and every day when I was in hospital Mum Dad came in to visit us so numbers of hours each day so
number of hours each day we were even more short staffed
The impact on the family side I thing is the most frustrating part about my accident
to do feel like I've let a lot of people down by having it
sometimes it's a shame that accidents do have to happen to make you more safety conscious
Since the accident obviously I'm a lot more cautious around
a lot of the machine I use I take my time a lot more now stand back a little bit
and look at the job that I'm doing rather than just diving in
and an obviously getting something wrong because once it's happened you can't take it back
Some people have said you know what's the point in having this pieces string with not on it
It's there to make you think
and to carry this promise I'll put it in a prominent place
where you know you see it regular but just be bloody careful
And just to get the promise not out there
and to see the pictures of thirty nine knots which is the number for fatalities last year
it could quite easily have been forty and that could have been another knot for myself
It's sort of a reminder
because sometimes you can be in a bit of a trance
when you're working specially some is repetitive that you do every single day
and something you've done for years and years and years and nothings ever gone wrong
but sometimes you know the one little thing can
can tip you over the balance and an accident can happen so
I'm not just somebody who sits in an office all day and I'm telling you not to do this because it's dangerous
You know I've been there
and