Johnstown Couple Weathers Double Pose Of PaM Farm Accidents
BY MARGIE FUSCO
Cambria County Correspondent
JOHNSTOWN Janet and Don
Mayer are able to laugh. That’s
saying a lot, because the Rfi
Johnstown couple have been
through a pair of debilitating farm
accidents in recent months.
Don is a third-generation farmer
who shared a dairy, beef and hog
operation with his father and
brother and also holds a job off the
farm. He admits to having seen
more than his share of danger in
his lifetime. He’s a former
firefighter who once fought a gas
fire alongside Red Adair. During
the storms that caused the 1977
Johnstown flood, Don received
electrical shocks from lightening
that hit his hilltop farm three times
in a few minutes, the final time
knocking him off a ladder and
halfway across the yard.
But even that didn’t prepare the
Mayers for events of this year.
Their story begins in February late
on a very snowy Valentine night.
“My mother-in-law called and said
Violet was having trouble giving
birth,” Janet recalls. Violet, a
Ambulances had a time getting Janet to the
hospital through the snow on this orchard road.
1,600-pound Charolais cross cow
was eight days overdue and
carrying a large Angus-Charolais
calf. “I told Don a few days before
that she was going to be trouble.’ ’
The veterinarian had been called
but was delayed by the heavy
snow. Janet, who has become
fairly accomplished at calving,
knew her help was needed. She
went down the hill through the
steep orchard road, now covered
over with brown snow, and found
her mother-in-law in the bam with
her two brothers-in-law.
“I examined the cow and could
feel that there were two back feet
coming out first and the calf was
huge,” Janet says. After some
discussion, they decided to use a
calf-puller. “I wasn’t convinced it
was the right thing to do because
the cow wasn’t fully dilated.
Looking back I should have known
better.”
As the calf began to move, the
cow started to tear. In an effort to
make the delivery easier, Janet
got on the cow’s right side and took
her tail. But just as Janet stood
even with the cow’s right hip, the
«>-'* ~ •,
* ,
/ * V
* v
M. -
Don Mayer takes care of some of the family's beef herd.
•* ». \
V - I*
‘ »*ii
» *r
calf struck a nerve on the cow’s
spinal column and Violet went
down, pinning Janet between her
hip and the stall partition.
“I don’t know how long 1 was
under there. It felt like forever,”
Janet admits. Her shoulder and hip
were crushed against the partition,
and her right leg was trapped. Her
brothers-in-law managed to right
the cow and pulled Janet to her
feet. “It was like trying to stand up
a bowl of oatmeal.”
She was able to sit down at the
end of the stall but thought her leg
was broken. She waited for an
ambulance while the men worked
on the calf, which was still mid
delivery, and the hemorrhaging
cow. Because of the snow and a
garbled report that Janet was still
trapped, an ambulance rushing to
the farm slid off the road,
destroying a fence and damaging
the brand new vehicle. It was
followed by a fire truck and a
second ambulance, which got
through. However, because the
lower roads were impassable, they
tried to take Janet out via the steep
orchard road and got stuck along
the way.
Inside the ambulance, Janet
admits, “I prayed my leg wouldn’t
be broken.” It wasn't until several
days later that the irony of her
prayers hit her. At a local hospital
she was told she’d just overex
tended her knee and was sent home
in a leg immobilizer. After several
days of sitting still, Janet decided
her leg didn’t seem any better. In
fact, the kneecap was located on
the side instead of the top of her
leg. She went to an orthopedic
surgeon who told her, “It’s a
shame you didn’t just break the
leg; this kind of damage is much
worse.”
Jane laughs, “You gotta watch
what you pray for, because it just
might come true.” Instead of a
clean break, she had torn and
twisted the knee joint, snapping off
three tendons, tearing a muscle,
and damaging virtually all the
knee tissues. “They call it blojving
out your knee. It’s something
professional football players do,
and they told me if I were an
athlete my career would have been
ended.”
The next day she had surgery ...
3M> hours to restore the knee to its
correct position. She emerged
from the operating room with
some staples, stitches and two
permanent pins internally and a
12-inch incision across the knee.
She admits the surgery went so
well that nothing prepared her for
what was to follow. There was
pain, lots of it. She hoped to be
home in a few days, but during her
stay she caught the flu. She came
home while still ill with the flu and
managed to fall while getting to the
Janet and Don Mayer display their "hardware," a knee
brace Janet must still use and a shoulder/arm restraint Don
wore for four weeks.
*Mtncs(cad
c H/ctes
bathroom at home.
“It was tough," Don says. Their
younger son, nicknamed Bear, was
home from Penn State on spring
break and was able to help out for
the first week, but after that Janet
was on her own with Don usually
away at his full-time job with
Bethlehem Steel and older son
Doug on his job as well.
“The first day I couldn’t get the
bedroom blind up. The sun was
shining and I wanted to see it... it
was such a little thing,” Janet
recalls. “But I couldn’t do it, and
that set me off crying. I cried for
about four hours."
Her recovery began to progress,
with the help of therapy sessions
three times a week. “But there
were still a lot of days I felt nasty,”
she says.
One of those days was June 8, a
bright, sunny Sunday. Because the
Mayers are leaders in 4-H, they
spent much of their free time
working with youngsters in the
Cloverleaf County-Bred Beef Club.
This day they went out “visiting
steers,” to see how the youngsters
were doing at handling. Janet had
just been given permission to drive
a few days earlier and had driven
the family’s Rabbit once but not
the 1978 Volkswagen bus they
decided to take on their visits.
They were at Capshaw Farms in
Patton about an hour from home
when, as Don recalls, “A 9-year
old girl was having a lot of trouble
with an unruly steer. I thought I
could help her out.” The steer
would handle well until he got
within 50 feet of the bam. Then
he’d bolt.
“He had a show halter on and a
nose clamp,” Don says. “I thought
I’d be able to control him.” He
smiles under his handlebar
moustache as he recalls the scene.
“I made several trips with him
successfully. Then he bolted on
me.”
Don thought he had the situation
under control and didn’t want to let
go of the lead and risk breaking the
steer’s neck. “But then I realized
my body was going about 40 miles
per hour and my feet were only
going 20.” Janet watched from the
bus as Don flew through the air and
landed hard on his right shoulder.
At first he said he was fine. He
even stayed for a while longer. But
within 30 minutes the pain and
swelling had started. He took the
wheel of the bus, determined to
drive home. As they started onto a
major highway, Don began to
sweat and turn pale, on the verge
of passing out. He told Janet to
take the wheel.
That’s the first tune their plight
struck them. Janet needed a step
stool to get in and out of the bus
because she was still in a brace
and was using crutches. But Don
was unable to stand or get down
from the car because of his injury.
With some difficulty they ex
changed seats, Janet having to
slide into the back of the bus to
allow Don to slide across, then
Janet coming forward to take the
wheel. Janet drove straight to the
hospital and because she couldn’t
get out of the car had to flag a
(Turn to Page B 4)