BMancaster Farming, Saturday, December 25,1993
Combine Accident Changes Life Forever
BONNIE BRECHBILL
Franklin Co. Correspondent
ST. THOMAS (Franklin Co.)
About 5:30 p.m. on October 4,
Jere Wingert climbed into his
combine and began shelling com
in a field in front of his house. Af
ter a few minutes, the outside row
of the combine header clogged
with com stalks.
As he had done many times be
fore, the 30-year-old beef and hog
farmer climbed out of the cab,
stood on the platform above the
auger and removed the obstruc
tion. But this time he was wearing
old shoes with smooth soles, and
the platform was coated with com
dust.
He slipped, feet first, into the
spinning 6-inch auger.
An auger pin pierced his left
shoe, wrapping his leg around the
auger one and a half times. His
shoe was on top, where he could
see it. He couldn’t see his right
leg, however, as it had slipped un
der the auger. “I thought it was
off,” he says.
Nicholas loves the baby pigs.
One of Nicholas's favorite activities Is playing farm with his father.
In minutes, his life was chang
ed. And although Wingert lost part
of his left leg in the accident, he
said he also gained something a
thankfulness in this holiday sea
son for the kindness and generosi
ty of his neighbors. And especial
ly, an appreciation for the sharp
ears of his 314 -year-old son,
Nicholas.
After falling into the auger,
Wingert braced himself with his
arms against the frame of the com
bine to keep from being pulled in
farther and shouted for help. He
called for his Wife, his father, a
neighbor. No one came.
His wife, Carol, was upstairs in
the farmhouse running bath water
for Nicholas.
“Mommy, I hear a kitty-cat,”
Nicholas said.
Carol turned off the water and
listened. When she realized it was
her husband calling, she wrapped
Nicholas in a bathrobe and ran
outside.
“I was getting to the end,” Win
gert says now. “It wasn’t even like
a regular holler.”
Following her husband’s in
structions, Carol pulled the lever
to disengage the auger. Then she
ran back to the house to call 911.
Wingert was in the combine up
to his waist; Carol thought both of
his legs were severed. “1 told the
dispatcher that he was conscious,
but I wasn’t sure for how long.”
Paramedics tried to free Win
gert by turning the auger back
wards with a wrench, but it caused
him too much pain. They also
tried the JAWS rescue tool, but its
vibrations were intolerable.
“I kept thinking, ‘They don’t
know how to get him out of
there,”’ Carol said.
Several neighboring farmers
had also arrived on the scene. A
local machinery repairman, Jerry
Miller, was summoned to bring
his propane torch to cut the auger.
“If it wasn’t for him. I don't
know where I’d be at this point,”
Wingert said, sitting on a couch in
his family room seven weeks after
the accident
The farmers wanted to lift the
auger out as soon as both ends
were cut but paramedics insisted
on placing a tourniquet around
Wingert’s left thigh first
“What one didn’t understand
the other one did,’’ Carol said of
the joint rescue.
Wingert remembers seeing
Carol, Nicholas and Jere Wlngert are thankful this holiday season that Jere’s life
was spared, although he lost his left leg In a combine accident.
Nicholas is proud of the fact that he was the first to hear
his father calling for help. Whenever the story of his father’s
accident is told, Nicholas makes sure his part of the drama
is Included. “I thought it was a lost little pussy cat,” he says.
about five farmers at each end of
the auger. Others supported his
body as the auger was raised, his
leg still wrapped around it
Paramedics told Carol the right
leg was all right, but gave her no
assurances for the left leg, she re
called.
The rescue operation took only
24 minutes; Wingert estimates he
was in the combine between five
and 10 minutes before Nicholas
heard him.
A medical helicopter airlifted
the injured fanner to the Shock
Trauma Unit of the University of
Maryland Hospital in Baltimore,
( wmestfiad
tmifis
where he lost consciousness. He
had been “very much with it,” un
til then, Carol said.
Several hours later, despite doc
tors’ attempts to save it, Wingert’s
left leg was amputated at mid
thigh. “There really was no
choice,” Carol said. “It was his life
or his leg.”
After 20 units of blood and four
further operations, Wingert was
transferred to Mechanicsburg Re
habilitation Hospital October 22.
There, he progressed from a
wheelchair to a walker to crutches
and was discharged November 5.
(Turn to Pago B 4)