The prairie skies darkened as Darwin McClughan hurried to finish baling in August 2004.
As he had done many times before, the farmer from Duval, Sask., left the tractor and baler running and stepped out to restart the twine-wrapping process.
But this time, hay was built up on the ledge where his hand was and when the chaff slid down, his arm was pulled into the baler almost up to his shoulder.
“I was trapped. I live alone, so there was no one here to know I’m missing,” he said.
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Complicating the situation was the fact he had left his cellphone in the cab and he was straddling the power take-off.
“If I moved, my shoe laces would get caught,” said McClughan.
He knew screaming into the night air would prove futile, with the nearest farm kilometres away. He dared not use the other arm in case it also got pulled in.
McClughan would remain there crouched over the whirling p.t.o. for 13 hours, licking rainwater off the metal baler to keep himself, a diabetic, hydrated.
He watched the sun rise the next day and waited until mid-morning, when his cousin drove by, stopped and quickly turned off the machines. Emergency response teams soon arrived but it would be another hour before they were able to dismantle the baler to release his arm and transport him to a hospital in Regina.
That’s where the doctor told him the right arm couldn’t be saved.
“That part of it bothered me more than being trapped in the baler,” said McClughan. “My life would be totally different than what it was.”
Weeks of recovery and months of rehabilitation followed as the right-handed McClughan learned to use his left hand. By the next spring, he had started farming again with help from his brothers.
“You don’t realize how much of a two-handed society it is until you don’t have two hands to do it.”
Chores now take longer and some just aren’t possible without help.
He said short cuts and rushing account for many farm accidents.
“For the time I saved leaving the baler running, now I’m paying for the rest of my life. If I’d have shut it off, I’d still have my right arm,” he said.
“It’s not always the first time a person gets caught, but it sneaks up on you when you least expect it.”
These days, he never leaves the cab without his cellphone and without shutting down first. His outcome might have been better if he’d been able to get help sooner, he said.
While in hospital, McClughan received a visit from another farmer who had survived a farm accident and lost both arms.
“I was in a depressed period. It was pretty uplifting to see how he was managing,” said McClughan.
Bill Thibodeau, co-ordinator of the Saskatchewan Abilities Council’s Farmers with Disabilities, said the peer mentorship program matches farmers with volunteers with similar injuries in their region, in the hopes that the support continues after the initial visit.
Hundreds of farmers have been involved since the program began in 1985, with many more receiving other sorts of support, he said. Volunteers receive training and are reimbursed for mileage and meals.
Thibodeau said it is not designed to replace professional counselling but to offer practical information such as farm modifications, technical aids and how to saddle a horse and open gates. He thinks such information is best delivered by someone with a similar experience.
“It’s better to talk to farmers, farmer to farmer,” he said.
Since his accident, McClughan has also volunteered his time with Farmers with Disabilities, speaking at schools and farm shows.
He said children are quick learners and take his farm safety message home to their families and friends.
“I’m a living example of what can happen,” he said. “I can show them what happens when you don’t practice farm safety.”
