Galway man recalls horrific farm accident that saw him lose half his leg

'I was caught in the machine for an hour-and-a-half before help arrived'

Philip O’Connor pictured on his farm near Kinvara, Co Galway. Photo: Hany Marzouk

Michael Keaveny

July 21 2020 02:30 AM

Looking back on the day a farm accident changed his life in 2005, beef farmer Philip O'Connor says that cutting corners and rushing jobs was definitely a factor in what unfolded.

"I was doing a load of different things and the clock was dictating the schedule, my head wasn't clear.

"Hindsight is a great tool," says the 52-year-old, who farms in Kinvara, Co Galway with his wife Bernie and their three children, 11-year-old twins Ozzie and Siofra, and Jonah (8).

"I caught my leg in a beet pulper on the back of a tractor," recalls Philip. "-Ever since I was a child I had a habit of kicking things. A piece of beet got caught on top of the pulper and I went for it with the boot - next thing I knew, my foot got caught in the pulper.

"I was caught in the machine for an hour and a half before help arrived. It was a windy January day and it was very hard for people to hear me. I was only found when a neighbour up the road went outside and heard me roaring, but I was getting weak at that stage.

"I was shouting for so long that I began to eat sugar beet to keep my mouth moist because it had gone dry. The doctors say that the sugar in the beet helped me because it gave me the energy to keep going.

"The fire brigade came to cut me out and that took another hour and a half."

After emergency surgery in University Hospital Galway, Philip - who was 36 at the time and had been married to wife Bernie for four years - lost his leg five inches below his knee. But, remarkably, he was back on his feet with the help of a walking aid within days.

"My accident happened on a Sunday. I was in hospital, lying there feeling sorry for myself and a woman came in and said that she wants me back on my feet by the following Monday. To put it politely, I told her what I thought of her, but she was right.

"She went away, I looked at the wound, got my head around it and off I went after that. I was walking on the Friday.

Farming system

"I wouldn't take things lying down, so I decided I'd just have to get on with it. Life moves on, whether you like it or not. I was out of the hospital in 16 days.

"You think these accidents will happen to someone else, you never think it'll happen you, but sometimes it does."

Philip's leg was slow to heal due to an MRSA infection, but he was fitted with a prosthetic leg on May 24.

"That summer I cut over 100 acres of silage and brought in the bales," he says.

The accident prompted him to make some changes on his farm.

"Cattle are less physically demanding," he explains. "The cows are a lot wilder and I was dealing with bulls as well. The cattle are more timid.

"I didn't want to be sleeping in an armchair so I can get up in the middle of the night to calve cows, so I just decided to get out of them."

But despite having plenty of offers for help, he was determined to do as much work as he could himself, despite the occasional setback with his leg.

"My friends and family were great but they have their own lives to live as well," he says. "They were very good but you can't keep going back to them."

The majority of people involved in farm accidents are older farmers.

Philip believes this is unlikely to change and says poor prices are a big reason for the decline in the numbers of young farmers .

"If you go to the mart you see the people involved in farming are getting older because the money isn't there for the next generation to take it over," he says.

"If a young person has a job, they know they're guaranteed a week's wages. Why would they get involved in farming?

"Then you have things like quality assurance and other inspections which instead of making things easier, are making life harder for farmers. All of this is putting young people off it. All farmers want is a fair price for their produce."

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