Agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries in the world. Reducing farm-related deaths and life-changing accidents has to be a priority for us all. This episode features Austin Gellings from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and Darcy McKay, a critical care paramedic at STARS. They discuss common farm accidents and how to prevent them. We also hear from Adair O'Grady, who shares the harrowing tale of his farm-related accident.
Agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries in the world. Reducing farm-related deaths and life-changing accidents has to be a priority for us all. This episode features Austin Gellings from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and Darcy McKay, a critical care paramedic at STARS. They discuss common farm accidents and how to prevent them. We also hear from Adair O'Grady, who shares the harrowing tale of his farm-related accident.
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Topcon talks, agriculture. My name is Dave or, and I am the business development manager for Topcon. Today. We are discussing a topic that is involved in every farm. It's not necessarily always discussed around the separate table, but certainly in the back of minds of every individual working on the farm today, we're discussing the common farm accidents for fatalities in the field, how to prevent them and what to do in the event of an accident. Farm safety is not a new topic, but we still see tragedies that are permanently disabled or wreck havoc on the farming business. And we need to understand how we can protect our families, our neighbors, our relatives, and employees alike today. To help me discuss this topic. We have Austin yellings, the director of agricultural services at AEM. Austin will help us explain how AEM can play an important role in the safety and product leadership on the farm. They support safety awareness year round by offering an array of safety products, manuals, and videos. Also joining us today is Darcy McKay, the provincial director and critical care paramedic at Star's area ambulance today, Darcy's going to help us explain how first responders are trained for farm emergency responses and understand the complexities of rescuing patients in a challenging and remote location. A little bit later on in the podcast, we're gonna have ADA O Grady join us. Adair has an experience of a farm accident where stars air ambulance came to his rescue on the farm. CDC ranks agriculture as one of the most hazardous industries, farmers that are a very high risk of fatal and non-fatal industries. And farming is one of the few industries where family members are at the same risk as each other. Austin. What makes agriculture industry so dangerous?
Speaker 2:Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the unpredictability of it all. You know, farmers work in a fast paced environment where their day is influenced by so many factors that are outside of their control. Um, whether that be weather, things of that nature, this leads to increased pressure on them in situations where they're already having to make split second decisions, especially when a situation begins going south, pairing this with the fact that they're constantly working with either unpredictable animals, a moving machinery, um, and that nature, it creates a what can sometimes be a, a dangerous combination.
Speaker 1:Right? And, and I guess in your experience in dealing with the safety side of this, um, you've, you've probably heard some survivor stories or statistics. What are the most common injuries?
Speaker 2:Some of the most common accidents though, you know, include things like rollovers incidents with grain bins or even manure pits when it comes to things like asphyxiation, moving machinery down, rural roads, or sometimes not even rural roads. Um, but that interaction with other other vehicles and, and people who may not be as familiar with being around farm machinery accidents with chemical handling or just things like that,
Speaker 1:Maybe you could define for us exactly what AEM considers a farm accident, because from my knowledge of farm accident, as any time that somebody has put in danger on the farm, you know, spilling chemical and, and having a skin burn, we might not think of that as a farm hazardous accident, because a lot of times we go wash that off or we go do the proper treatment ourselves. Right. And so, so how do you guys truthfully define a farm accident on the farm?
Speaker 2:I think, I think that's just it, I, I think, you know, there are lots of accidents that happen on the farm that we don't necessarily think of an accident because we, they happen and we, we take care of them and we move on. Right. It doesn't really disrupt our day too much, but it's re it's really just that any, any disruption or, or instance that wasn't supposed to happen, wasn't planned something as simple as, as a spill, we clean it up, we move on, or sometimes it's much larger than that. Um, and then there's actual actual injury and intervention involved.
Speaker 1:Could you give us a little bit of insight on what AEM offers to farmers during these, uh, training periods?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Uh, AEM puts together a number of materials, whether that be safety manuals, training videos, um, really to do just that, you know, teach farmers, um, especially from the equipment standpoint, what, what are the things that we should be doing? And I think that that's one thing farmers are fairly good at is most farmers know what they should do, but in the moment when we have all these different things going on in the pressure of the day on us, whether it's trying to beat rain or getting, getting the crop off, or you're dealing with animals sometimes what we should do and what we need to do don't necessarily match up and we focus more on what we need to do rather than what we should do. Um, so really it's just about that. Putting materials out there to keep that what we should do message top of mind and really ingrain it in our minds through different types of training, um, and repetition and things like that.
Speaker 1:I, is there any statistics that you might have seen or collected that would lead us to understand when we're more susceptible to farm accidents? You obviously say during high pressure times, but is it more common at the end of the day, or is it more common, you know, right in the middle of harvest necessarily. Um, is there any, you know, kind of statistic that really shows that farmers and maybe even their support system on the farm can be aware of that it's a, it's a time of the year or it's a, it's a day of the week that it's maybe a little bit more important to exercise all the precautions.
Speaker 2:I, I don't have any hard numbers off, off the top of my head, but from studies said I've seen in the past and things like that, I think it plays right into what you would expect. Right. Um, whether it's towards the end of the day or middle of harvest, you know, what, when you, when you've had the, the pressure of the day kind of wear you down a little bit and you've gone through all your tasks and it's, it's just fatigue and you're en crunch time and just wanting to get something done. That's really when it's most important to try to keep those messages top of mind, because that's when we take the shortcuts to just get things done, right. We, we have to get it off before it rains. Um, we, you know, we're, we're nearing the end of the season type of type of thing. We've, we've gotta, we've gotta make sure that we're keeping those what we should do top of mind.
Speaker 1:Right. And as we, you know, get into those situations, um, and we're relying on our own intuition to tell us to slow down and take a breath, how do we convince ourselves that the crop isn't worth it to take it off in the morning? I know that we're gonna hear from a, a, a story a little bit from now, um, from our friend to dare that that should really resonate home on when to maybe slow down or not do that next thing. But how do we keep that in the front of mind? It's easy to prepare to keep it there, but how do we actually keep it there?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's just reminding ourselves at the end of the day that whether we get the crop off at this exact moment or not, it's, it's gonna be there tomorrow. Right. And so it's not worth rushing with the potential chance to lose something that we can't get back. I, you know, a fatal instance, for example, you know, that's, that's the end of the road that crop will still be there. Uh, you know, it's just taking that time to slow down and remember what's important so that we can take those steps to, to make sure that we're doing what we need to do. And oftentimes, you know, being prepared, you know, the minute, the time that it takes to be prepared while, and it may only save you a couple seconds on the back end because you're prepared, you know, what you should do. Um, those couple seconds can be the difference sometimes between life and death, and it can really make that difference.
Speaker 1:There's other things that have come into the farming industry over the past few years that certainly should help farm accents. You know, one of them probably is the industry I work in with Topcon that's precision agriculture. Have you been able to see anything that correlates to farm injuries going down because of, um, automation or precision agriculture?
Speaker 2:Well, I know that there are, are some, certainly some studies out there that take a look at some, uh, you know, instances of fatigue or stress, right? And, and that's oftentimes what correlates then to more of these in injuries when we're fatigued and want to get the job done, or when there's high levels of stress. And we're making, having to make these split second decisions that oftentimes can be the difference between everything going smoothly or, or having an accident. And O autonomy helps to reduce all of those things, right? It takes away these tedious tasks that sometimes can, can wear us down a little bit, or it helps, uh, you know, just completely eliminate what could, what could be a dangerous decision if it's, if it's not made correctly. Um, and so it's all about just making, you know, the day easier for the farmer so that they don't have to make as many of these stressful decisions. And it helps, helps lower that and makes the day a little bit easier for them at, at the end of the day, taking them out of those harmful, dangerous situations. Hopefully there's different levels of, of, of autonomy too, right? You, you can have an, you know, semi-autonomous piece something, you know, I think of like, boom, height control and sprayers that takes that stress away from the, from the applicator. So they don't have to worry about that. Or you can have a completely autonomous machine where now you don't have to do that task.
Speaker 1:Children who live on the farm are at the greatest risk of injury or death on the farm. How can you help a farmer childproof potentially hazardous areas on the farm or, or, or help those discussions on the farm with young children?
Speaker 2:I, I think it's really, it really starts with, you know, it's a, it's a twofold, twofold answer, right? Number one, it starts with just making sure that, you know, you, as you, as the farmer, the farm worker, you know, you know, what you should be doing. And, and you're doing that, whether that's, you know, if you look at, you know, locking up chemicals or just being aware of the child's location at all times, um, making sure that they're not around running and moving machinery or, or things like that. Um, but then number two, you know, it's taking the time to make sure that children are aware of what they should be doing as well. I grew up on a farm, my family still farms. And it was said to me so many times that I was probably repeating it on my sleep at times to not go near moving machinery, or if I had to work on a piece of machinery, make sure everything was shut off. And it's just making sure that that messaging, um, is ingrained, you know, in their minds so that they know cuz you know, as a child, you see a big piece of machinery and it's fascinating, right? You want to go see it, touch it, be around it. But if it's on and operating that's, that's not a good thing. And so it's ingraining those types of messages, um, in their mind so that they know when they, when they engage with a piece of machinery, how they should act, how to engage with it, to hopefully avoid any accidents.
Speaker 1:And I guess that comes right from a young age, right. You know, right. When you're three watching your dad cut the lawn all the way up, every piece of machinery that comes into the yard, getting familiar with it and understanding the potentially dangerous things and where to go in the, in the shop and where not to go because of chemical storage or, or what it might be in am you guys believe that farm emergency plans are a vital thing that needs to be on the farm. Can you please explain, uh, what should be included in the farm emergency plan and why they are still vital?
Speaker 2:Well, it's, it all goes back to, you know, the overall messaging of all this right? Making sure we're prepared, making sure in the moment, if something happens, we know what to do. And that's really the purpose of a farm emergency plan. It lays out, you know, in different instances, you know, what should you do? Who should you call? And, and it really prepares you for how you, how to engage in that moment. And it just goes back to preparation then at that point, right? Making sure we know what the farm emergency plan is. So that in the moment we're not, you know, we're not wasting any time we're getting right to action doing what needs to be done. Cuz as I mentioned earlier, you know, being prepared while it may take a little bit of time, it can Le oftentimes lead to saving those seconds. That can be mean the difference between life and death.
Speaker 1:Is there a fair amount of air ambulances services that are readily available to many jurisdictions throughout the United States?
Speaker 2:As in my area, um, here in Southeastern Wisconsin and other areas, I I've been, it, it tends to be fairly common, right? As, I mean when, especially when you're in a rural area, that's the that's, that's oftentimes the, the quickest and most safe way. It it's just a level of comfort. Right. You know, one of when you're out in a tractor and you're in this, you know, oftentimes you're not thinking about, you know, what the worst case scenario could be, but that thought does creep into your mind. And it's comforting to know that in that instance, you know, even though you're in the middle of a field, sometimes in the middle of nowhere, that there is still an option to make sure that if worst case scenario happens, there's a level of comfort there, knowing that there is somebody there that can be timely in helping, helping get you then to help you need.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for the information. Thank you for sharing us, uh, how AEM, uh, views these accidents and incidences and, and how they help prevent them and the ongoing work that you're doing on behalf of all of the agriculture industry. Thank you for, for promoting farm safety. And thank you for being an ambassador of farm safety as mentioned EMSS and other rescue personnel are called the farms and ranches relatively infrequently. However, when they are cold, it's often includes a complex situation. These situations range from where to land or what the actual medical situation could be. EMS providers may need to travel farther, navigate difficult terrains and enter dangerous spaces or fight adverse weather conditions. When responding to calls, joining us today, to talk more about how EMS is respond and the difficulty things that they go through is Darcy McKay. Who's a provincial director and critical care paramedic for stars, air ambulance here in Saskatchewan, Darcy. Thanks again for joining us. And why don't you take a little bit of time to tell us about yourself and also about stars, air ambulance?
Speaker 3:Well, thanks Dave. So I've been a critical care paramedic in the EMS industry, probably just over 30 years now. And I currently work for starer ambulance. It's an acronym. It stands for shock trauma air rescue service. And it actually started in Calgary back in 1985 and it's kind of cascaded across the price. And for those in the states, that's, uh, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and we have a huge agriculture component in all three provinces, whether it be farming or ranching.
Speaker 1:Talk me through the process, what happens from the beginning of the call and then kind of through the whole process of the flight,
Speaker 3:For sure. Um, so it depends how the call comes in. It can come directly from 9 1 1, or it can come in through our emergency link center. So that's the dispatch center we use. So what you and Austin were talking about, um, in your farm emergency plan is knowing your land location. Uh, it'll allow us to get to you quicker if you don't know your land location, uh, get, uh, your family and yourself, um, the awareness of how to pick up your GPS coordinates off your phone. We have fantastic technology nowadays. Um, pull up your GPS. We can plug that into the computer in the helicopter and fly directly to you. I I've done it a number of time. It works slick and of course you're getting that much needed care to that patient quicker.
Speaker 1:Right? And so after you've, you've kind of triaged, um, what exactly is happening and where you need to go to pilots, get into the, into the helicopter and paramedics alike and, and you kind of push all the hanger and take off. Correct?
Speaker 3:Correct. And, and then it's all about getting information. So is there chemicals on site? What type of machinery, how many patients, what the actual, um, problem is? Sometimes it can just be, uh, you know, somebody's having a cardiac event, like a heart attack and they're driving their combine and are calling us in the middle of nowhere. Um, so as you and Austin already went into it, farm emergencies, there's all different types of scope.
Speaker 1:Are you collecting that data well on board? Um, I guess from the time of 9 1, 1 in taking that call, what's just kind of the, the, the, the time between, um, triaging that call and, and getting off the ground.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the beauty of it is, is our dispatch center. Uh, the emergency link center actually gathers all information and continues throughout the call. Um, you know, what resources are available, the, the nearest fire department, the nearest ground ambulance. Um, is there, are we going to need different resources? Like you already suggested hydro or power to shut off, uh, the electrical like grid nearby? Um, so we take all that into account and then what chemicals were on scene? Um, of course we can land up wind and the pilot always do a nice little of the area just to make sure everybody's safe and, and nobody else gets hurt.
Speaker 1:And that's, uh, you know, very crucial things to know. And I guess it's also crucial to be known. One about the own farm is if, uh, you know, somebody that's maybe not involved in the farm operation still needs to know what's on the scene. Um, because if they aren't the knowledge keeper and it's a knowledge keeper that is in need of medical attention, they still need to be able to provide that valuable information. Um, like you said, even just land locations, but the chemicals, or if there's hydro close by or any of those things, to make sure that, um, we're saving time, because I would imagine that having that knowledge is actually going to save time, um, in being able to get the helicopter down onto the ground faster than having to try and navigate through those things yourselves from the sky.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. Dave, you know, quickness and then again, safety for everybody.
Speaker 1:What specific on-farm resources or manpower and tools do you use to rescue farmers and to protect your people?
Speaker 3:So the biggest thing we use at stars is education more than anything. So training awareness, you know, we're dealing with exercise, herbicide, fertilizer, how to shut off a power takeoff, like stuff like that is just vital important. It seems so simple, but it's so important. How do you shut off a piece of machinery and then what resources are available that will need, because some of these pieces of equipment, they're, they're almost like built like a tank and, you know, so how do you get in if somebody needs to be extricated, the proper resources that are needed to, uh, to, uh, get to that patient
Speaker 1:And, and does in your situation with stars, do you guys fly with tools such as jaws of life to be able to operate those things? Or are you relying on ground emergency crews to help you with that?
Speaker 3:We rely on ground. Uh, so it's kind of like a small village to get to that patient. So we don't carry the jaws just cuz of the weight, but, uh, we use would use the ground fire departments. What we do carry though is like the antidotes of, uh, some of the chemicals that are, uh, used in farming.
Speaker 1:You guys do a lot of training about how, um, people on the, the ground can properly assist air ambulances in, in landing creating a safe space for communities. And that's known as, you know, the landing spot if, if needed. And, and, and that's probably also something that could be part of an emergency plan. Um, if something happens on the farm, where would we suggest Star's air, ambulance land, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, uh, the helicopter means about 30 meters by 30 million. I ideally flat. And if there's one thing that the prairies have, it's, it's a lot of flat land, so, uh, um, but yeah, basically it's safe. We can land on a road to it. There's just risks every time, but ideally you wanna get as cl and, uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, the closer you can get to the patient, the better, the less I have to walk. I'm just saying that as a joke obviously, but, uh, closer you can land the better.
Speaker 1:What are some challenges you encounter during an ag related, uh, mission?
Speaker 3:The big thing again is just isolation, like, uh, to get to that patient. If they're not most farms in, in three promises I work in is they're huge. So they could be somewhere on the farm. We don't know that's what important to know the GPS location, but just getting the resources that you need to the patient. Uh, if it's required, just like for extrication, um, it, it can be difficult sometimes, but, um, that's the beauty of the helicopter as well. You get the land right beside the, the patient.
Speaker 1:And I guess it's also important to note that, you know, land descriptions probably also in the field that you're working on throughout the Midwest of America, and then up into the prairies, we're on some pretty large farms, um, in the line location of the home yard site could be a few miles away. And if you're circling around a, a homestead and the farmer is out in the north 40 or whatever you want to call it, that could be quite a ways away that you might not just see right away from the air also. Right. So it's important to know where everybody on the farm is at all times and, and good land locations for that too. Correct?
Speaker 3:Exactly. Dave. Exactly.
Speaker 1:So what does farm rescue and response training look like? Um, for, for you guys? I know you, you offer some, you know, you talked about how you guys internally train and the tools that you guys use of how to, you know, help shut down equipment once you arrive on scene or, or be able to navigate through that. But do you guys do any trainings for farmers and, and the agricultural industry you like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, we, we work in, uh, combination with, with farmers as well. And, and like I said, ground ambulance, uh, police, uh, fire it, like it takes a village to, uh, you know, get to that patients
Speaker 1:From there, from once the patient is in, it's just a straight B-line back to the local, to the closest hospital with the helicopter pad, um, or a closest landing spot to a, to get the patient to the medical attention they need. Correct. Well,
Speaker 3:We'll, uh, stabilize the patients in, in the air, so to speak and take that patient probably depending on what they need. Like, um, if it's trauma related, we'll take'em to a trauma center. If it's, uh, let's say it's a heart attack. That's, like I said, said previously, someone, one in a combine combine will get them to a cath lab. So it all depends on the type of verge. If somebody's having a stroke, there's, uh, various types of, uh, accidents and injuries that can happen on, uh, on the, uh, farm, unfortunately, a lot are trauma related. So we probably go to a trauma center, uh, for the majority of our, uh, patients and, uh, hopefully get them to the, uh, operating table soon.
Speaker 1:So board of a star air ambulance, what, what traditionally is there for personnel, um, to help on this mission? So
Speaker 3:We always fly with two pilots. Uh, one's the, uh, pilot and command the others, the safety officers, just to making sure the helicopter and the, uh, scene is safe. And then we fly a nurse paramedic combo. They kind of come from each other and we also have the option of reading a transport physician, uh, along, and they can, uh, help assist, uh, on seek as well if need be.
Speaker 1:And then does a, you know, a stars helicopter, um, is that outfitted very similar to what we believe a ground transportation, ambulance would have for, um, tools and abilities to stabilize a patient?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they, they have some of the same tools as well. Um, uh, they have a couple of more skills that they can perform and as well, they have a few more medications they can administer. Um, we also carry blood on board, which is kind of a game changer for trauma, uh, related injuries.
Speaker 1:Interesting. And, and so, in, in closing, what do you believe every farmer could do to prevent these injuries? I know that Austin and I had a great dialogue on, on making sure that you understand your basically your surroundings, whether it's a stress level or it's a power post internal, external surroundings, what, what do you believe could help prevent accidents like this on a daily basis?
Speaker 3:I think you and Austin actually kind of nailed it. Take your time. I know in farming when you have the opportunity to make hay, so to speak, you make hay, you go, and so don't rush. And then I have a good plan. Know your land location. If I could get one thing across is know your land location, and know how to pull up your GPS on your phone. You know, if, if you can have the option of always farm with a buddy, uh, meaning somebody to have, or at least if you don't have that, have them check up on you. It's so easy to either talk on a, like a walkie talkie, CV, radio, text message phone every hour, just to check in on you just to see how you're doing and make sure everything's okay.
Speaker 1:Right. And I, I know I asked Austin this about, he has a little bit larger breath of, of ground to cover. And he said, he, he said that to air ambulance services are quite frequent. And I know in, in doing some research that a lot of air ambulances are saying the exact same thing know where you are once the accident happens, there's nothing you can do to uneven that. So just know where you are and that's, that's the next best thing for you. So, you know, we'll certainly be advocates in helping you hound that one home.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Dave, appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Today. You've brought a very special person to help explain farm accidents. You know, maybe be an advocate for slowing down, taking that extra, extra breath or second, why don't you help us, uh, introduce a dare.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we call our, uh, patients who we have flown, uh, VIPs. That's a very important patient. And, and to me, I could tell the tale, uh, but I think it's so much more powerful hearing it from the patient or patient family, uh, themselves. So, uh, yeah, I, uh, present to you, uh, Dar Grady. Who's gonna tell you his story.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thanks Darcy. Thank you so much Adaire for joining us today.
Speaker 4:Thanks Dave, for having me and allowing me to share my story and thanks Darcy for the introduction. Appreciate the stars team. I'll let you guys do great, great group of people. So my story, I guess, starts back in 2015 on the farm. It was a regular spring day. We had just recently purchased a new air Cedar and, uh, my dad and myself were working through trying to get it set up. It was a fairly warm day. We were trying, working through some electronics, trying to get alarms to work, getting everything dialed in the typical scenario of getting everything rolling and feeling some pressure to get seating as well too is time is marching along. Um, I farm for 20 actually longer than 20 years, probably 30 years of my life for this. And I've always worked with my dad and the scenario played out where we had sought the air of Cedar. We were just getting ready for supper was probably about 6:00 PM. And, uh, just double checking to make sure that everything was good to go. Like most farmers, you are checking the depth of your seat to make sure that it's in the moisture and not too deep. And I was down on the ground. We had parked the air Cedar up on, uh, the edge of a hill. I had stopped mid pass and, uh, my father actually had pulled up and we were just double checking it and just talking through next steps of the evening and shutting it down for supper just to go eat and then get things rolling. And as, uh, I was checking the depth, um, and we had decided to go in and decided to move over just one more Passover, one more furrow over, just in the sea row just to make sure everything was perfect. And, and you know, like so many times in farming, because you've worked with the person so long, you just know each other. A lot of times you find that you don't even need to communicate. They just know you where you're gonna be. At that moment. My dad actually jumped into the truck, had talked to just had phone back to the farm and said, Hey, we're coming in for supper. Um, looked around and thought the coast was clear. He was on the edge of the hill as well, too. And, uh, looked over and thought that I was already back at the tractor simple mistake. At that time, he decided that he was going to, um, drive ahead and out of the field. And at that moment, I was probably about eight feet in front of the truck. And, uh, look back and realized as he was moving forward. I'm like, he does not see me. And like any accident, it happens quick. It's not, not something that you can ever prepare for. And you have multiple seconds to think through so many scenarios at that moment, I decided it would be best to try to roll out of the way, because it was down on my hands and knees close to the ground. As I tried to do that, it was like within a matter of seconds in the front wheel of our, um, one 10 service truck was up on my chest. The tire came up my arm across my chest and, and stopped just shy. There was actually tread marks on my chest and on my chin at that moment, my dad stopped and said, well, that's weird. There's no rocks in the field. And then it hit him that I was under the truck. So a lot of things happened really quick after that moment, like any, um, accident or emergency. And you're in shock as the truck was on me. Uh, the last thing I remember was passing out and, uh, and I couldn't breathe. Um, my world kind of went really dark. My dad backed off of me and immediately got outta the truck and got a hold of 9 1 1 and said, Hey, we have an emergency, which dispatched the local EMS group that we have out here, which is in rural areas. It is the first step in the whole critical care process, which leads to stars. It was a matter of minutes. They dispatched from a local town. That's close to us and proceeded out to, um, the location as to where I was at. And, uh, and immediately started looking after me at that time. They didn't know what all was wrong, but for me, I wasn't able to see for a period of time, just from the pressure of, of the vehicle driving up on me, my vitals were dropping and, uh, I was really struggling to breathe, not knowing what was gonna happen at that moment. I think they decided that this was serious. We needed to do something quick and it probably included stars. So at some point in time, their stars was contacted. And I think originally they were set up flares out in the field for the helicopter, but because my oxygen level and my ability to breathe was so low. They decided it was wise to put place me in the ambulance and, uh, proceed with traveling towards Saskatoon to meet stars and, uh, and just mitigate the time that it took to get me to critical care. My wife was called at the same time. And she came out to the field, along with the kids. And again, lots of things are happening. They told her she couldn't jump in the ambulance, but she proceeded do she, wasn't gonna leave my side and, uh, traveled with me in the ambulance to go meet the stars team. It was probably about a half an hour away that they, they met stars. So that tells you how quick stars is coming from two and a half hours away. They were, they were already up in the air and moving and met them quickly. They landed and chose a place to, to meet at that was that worked well and, uh, proceeded to quickly move me outta the, um, ambulance and into the helicopter. My wife being in shock had to say goodbye to me. There's always sometimes emotional parts when you tell a story. So for my wife having to say goodbye, um, no knowing if that was the last time she was gonna see me, it was, it was tough. There was hoping that though, too, um, Jenny was the flight nurse that, uh, was with me that day and she took my wife's number down and, uh, encouraged her and, uh, proceeded to text her, um, just as we traveled into the university hospital in, um, Saskatoon for Mely. I didn't know if I was gonna survive. I didn't know what the end looked like, cuz it was a bit scary. Um, they took me to the U U OFS hospital in Saskatoon where I was placed into critical care there. My incident included six broken ribs, um, a broken collarbone included, uh, um, a collapsed lung bleeding around my heart. Um, my eyes because of the pressure had, were protruding and I wasn't able to see for a period of time. So I had issues with vision as well too. And I, I guess to the entire journey, I can say thank you enough to the people that were there by my side, like any accident, things happen quickly. And, uh, you just never know. It's not something you can you expect. But through this, through this episode, we've talked about a lot of ways to prepare a lot of things that we can do. I think it's good to be out in front of farmers and have these discussions because life gets busy. We all, we all have that, whether it's it's in harvest or seating or whether it's on a person getting prepared to get away for a long weekend where we see incidents and accidents heightened too. I think it's important for all of us to be reminded and, and to do these things, to make awareness and to just get out in front of farmers and have those those discussions. So that's my story of the journey I've been on and this story doesn't end there. I've had the great opportunity to, to come through this and I'm a hundred percent on the other side, I had great help. Um, I've had the opportunity to meet the stars at the stars, base the team there, um, and have built a great relationship with them. I've been able to help in a very small way, helping with different functions and events and, uh, things that they do and including this podcast that you guys are putting together as well too. So I appreciate the opportunity as a person that's gone through an incident and being able to share my story and, and just help other people out to hopefully prevent something like this from happening again in the future.
Speaker 1:Uh, dare I, I can't, um, express enough gratitude to you for, for joining us today and, and sharing that story. You know, sometimes these stories are the best way to educate people, to put into perspective, um, what you had to go through. It's absolutely amazing that today you are where you are and you're a hundred percent on the other side, as you said. So that is a truly remarkable thing. And it's, it's such a, a fascinating thing to know that it was because of the, the work of the emergency people. It might not just be their ambulance services, but it's also the ground people and the ground ambulance, but it certainly is gotta be reassuring to know that if something does happen again, those people are still three digits away from that all trickling down into action. It's not, you know, things that you have to take on yourself. It's, it's one phone call for your dad or, or for that person that's helping the situation, right? So accidents are gonna happen, right? And, and, and we're lucky to have you here today to tell us about your accident and, and what we can learn from it. But, you know, the common theme seems to be, make sure you slow down. You take that extra breath and, and you know, the crops are gonna be there or the livestock will be there, right? You have a lot of fellow workers in the egg industry. What would you say could, could change the way that something happens on the farm?
Speaker 4:You know, um, you guys have resonated on a lot of great things and, and I, I am in similar as well as that, that take time to communicate. Communication's critical in anything. Sometimes we get moving too fast and don't take the time, take time to just double check. Um, a double check at any point in time can save a life. Um, after I was run over, I was doing some research on, um, number of incidents of people being run over. And I think in the number was close to 12 people in America per date were run over. And I guess that's what leads to backup cameras as well, too. But as life is busy, we don't take the time to double check and then just making eye contact. If you're working with somebody, it's one of the things we sat down with after the accident and said, Hey, you know what need to communicate if we're gonna be working near each other and just loud noises and you can't communicate verbally, verbally, you need to be able to make eye contact with that person. So they understand that you're aware of them and what they're doing and give them a thumbs up, right.
Speaker 1:And using the machinery for the right job. And the way it's meant to be used also is crucial. Absolutely crucial.
Speaker 4:And don't assume that you're, that it'll never happen to you. Um, I think in our mind, at some point in time, we all have that thought that it's not, it can't be me. It, you know, I I'm safe. I do everything right, but it can happen to anybody. I, I just want to thank Dave and, uh, Topcon for just identifying the need for farm safety and making awareness and, and taking the time to put this together, to be able to provide it to farmers and, and, uh, people out there to be able to be aware of this. So I appreciate that. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:No, it's the least we could do. It's, uh, it's a great initiative that I know is, you know, mentioned several times on this call. It's near and dear to the hearts of a lot of people in agriculture is farm safety. For sure. It's important to continuously stay vigilant about safety rules and equipment and train everyone on your team. Topcon encourages everyone to make a safety, a priority, keep yourself, and those who work with you protected from incidents by doing things like having a farm emergency plan and knowing your land location. Once again, I'd really like to thank our, our guests today, Austin Geer from AEM. Um, your insight on farm safety was absolutely unbelievable. Darcy, thank you for taking the time to explain to us exactly what a near ambulance service can do, how they operate and how they work, um, to ensure that missions go seamlessly, but also the end goal of, of making sure that patient is, is taken care of and a dare once again, cannot thank you enough for, for sharing your powerful story with us, allowing us to come into probably, you know, a little bit more of a personal matter with you and, and opening up to us and, and helping promote farm safety through something that we don't wish happens to anybody, but you've taken that time. You've turned it into a powerful message. So, so I, I truly thank you very much. Um, and thank you to you, our listeners for tuning in, I hope that the upcoming harvest season is, is a very safe one for you and, and all the farming years left, um, are done with the most safety possible, uh, knowing that the ambulance services behind you is a great thing, but don't take it for granted. And, and remember what a dare said. It could certainly happen to you if you enjoyed this episode or remember to like share and subscribe to Topcon talks, agriculture on Spotify, apple podcast, Amazon music, or wherever you get podcasts. Thank you once again, and everybody take care, slow down and have a good harvest season ahead.