SASKATOON – When Debbie Thoms drove out to talk to her husband while he was baling, she noticed his hat on the ground but didn’t think anything about it.
Then she saw one running shoe and “I thought he’d be gone.”
Her husband Doug was caught in the baler up to his hips. His face was black and Debbie screamed his name, thinking he was dead. He opened his eyes and was able to tell her to get help. Debbie left to get her dad but in her panic did not turn off the tractor.
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Speaking six years later about the accident, Thoms said she still feels guilty about that. And her husband, even while being rescued, berated himself for being stupid and upsetting people. Despite two crushed and broken legs and severe bruising, he recovered almost completely, progressing from a wheelchair to a walker to crutches to a cane to his own two legs again.
“You’d think this would have taught us about farm safety,” Thoms told the audience at the farmers with disabilities conference here last week.
Encounter with cow
But about two years after that accident she hopped into the corral on their Humboldt, Sask. area farm to check out a cow and its calf. The cow charged, and pinned her against the barn wall and began ramming her.
“I felt no fear. I just thought ‘I’ve got to stay on my feet or she’ll finish me.’ “
Her husband came running, scared the cow and then turned and yelled at her. She was angry with him but when both had cooled off they realized his emotions came from fear she might have been hurt.
The Thoms use other emotions, too, such as a sense of humor. In another calving check two winters ago, Debbie hopped on top of the feeder to get away from a touchy cow. From her vantage point she was able to shine the flashlight into all corners of the barn. Suddenly the door burst open and her husband ran in wearing only boots, sweatpants and toque in the -40 weather. From the house he had seen the flashlight waving wildly and he rushed over to save his wife from what he thought was another cow attack.
Debbie floored him with the comment that he obviously didn’t love her.
Bewildered, he said, “what do you mean?”
She answered that if he really loved her he would not have stopped to put his pants on!
The family has become extra careful. Their four children are not allowed on the machinery – even their 12 year old is not allowed to use the riding mower to cut the farmyard. Communication has been enhanced with two-way radios and on the phone are speed dial numbers for police, fire and ambulance, while nearby is the land description. They have a hand signal system worked out and all their children know it. Debbie is a First Responder and speaks out about their family’s experience at farm gatherings to underline the need for safety awareness.
Statistics show farming is the most dangerous occupation in Canada. Thoms said one in four farm families will suffer an accident, whether a death or simple injury.
“Most of us don’t expect an accident to happen to us. That’s why I go out and speak. I want people to know how their wives feel to be sitting in the house, left alone.”
