Tony Rowe says not concentrating for a moment on the farm can have lifelong consequences.
Tony Rowe enjoys a walk at Lake Rotoroa, Hamilton.
The former Waikato dairy farmer shared his story to help others stay safe.
It was early evening, February 27, 1999, and Rowe had just finished milking on his parent’s dairy farm, just outside of Te Awamutu, and had a couple more jobs to do before heading in for the evening.
The then 25-year-old got on the tractor and drove into a paddock to start chopping with the maize harvester.
His wife Kylie would usually ride the motorbike alongside him during one of his final jobs for the day, but as she was only one week away from giving birth to their first child, she wasn’t with him that evening.
Rowe had cut about three sides of the paddock when the machine blocked. He got out of the tractor to clear the blockage, but he didn’t think to turn the machine off.
“Hindsight is a beautiful thing,” said Rowe.
“I thought I wouldn’t be near it to have to move it, but then when it wouldn’t shift, I thought I’m going to have to get back on the tractor and back it up to take the pressure off the blockage.
“As I stepped back, I tripped and fell forward. My hand went on the blockage, which must have shifted a bit, and the machine grabbed that, and my arm together and just pulled me in up to my neck.”
Rowe was stuck like that for 25 minutes.
“It all happened so fast, but I can remember the feeling of it grabbing me and then a white-hot pain.
“It took the chain around my neck, and it took my earmuffs. I used my other arm to grab hold of the skid to try and stop the machine from pulling me in further.”
Rowe tried yelling, but no one could hear him over the sound of the machine.
“Every now and then it would grab a bit more shirt sleeve, or it would sort of try and pull me in a bit more.
“I think the adrenaline just takes over. It was just self-preservation. I was just trying to not go to sleep and hold myself to keep from going in further.
“All I wanted to do was fall asleep, but I thought if I close my eyes that would be it.”
From the house Kylie noticed cows in the maize crop and immediately knew something was wrong.
She rang Rowe’s mother who came down on the motorbike and found him trapped in the machine.
Rowe was able to talk his mother through how to turn the machine off and then she called emergency services.
Rowe was flown to hospital, and his family were told to say their goodbyes before he went into surgery as there was a chance he wouldn’t come out.
Rowe was in an induced coma for a few days following surgery. He spent a total of four and a half weeks in hospital while his body fought and overcame infections.
Rowe lost his left arm in the machine on the day of his accident. Surgeons tried to rebuild his shoulder with his stomach tissue, but it didn’t work. A skin graft was used and expanders inserted to stretch the skin over his entire wound.
“It was tough at the beginning. We had a new bub, I was inside trying to change nappies, and Kylie was out running the farm.
“Someone told me when I had the accident that it would be a couple of years before I started to feel normal, and I thought nah it won’t take that long. But, looking back on it, they were right. It took about two and a half years before I actually felt near normal.”
Tony Rowe back in the milking shed
Rowe was back working on the farm 18 months after his accident.
With support from ACC, an engineer built some adaptations for Rowe to help him with daily tasks on the farm.
“Between us we came up with a harness I could milk with, which helped hold the cups while I milked the next cow.
“We made adjustments to cup washes in the shed, to vehicles, and to farm machinery.”
He carried on farming for about 16 years after his accident.
“Ultimately it was my back that sort of forced me off the farm. I was shovelling maize and lifting 20-kilogram bags trying to prove I was as good with one arm as I was with two, but I was lifting things I probably shouldn’t have been.”
Rowe and his wife Kylie then took on their next challenge — a major house renovation. He has since worked for a hunting and fishing and outdoor sports stores.
Rowe said getting back to work and normal activities was instrumental in his recovery.
“It made me feel normal, having work to go to and to be back out there doing it. It was something good mentally.
“You can sit on the sidelines and watch everyone else live, because they’re going to continue living their life. But I thought bugger that, you got to get out and live. You got to carry on with life as if it didn’t happen because otherwise you will get left behind.”
“I am lucky to be alive”
Rowe very easily could have lost his life in the accident.
In fact, he almost bled to death but was saved by the way the rollers sealed his artery while he waited for help to arrive.
“It could have been a different story. I class myself as very lucky to be alive.”
Rowe said one of the hardest parts of his accident was being at home afterwards, while his wife Kylie was going out and working.
The biggest impact has probably been on Kylie, he said.
“Kylie ended up having to compensate for a lot. She missed quite a bit of the early stages with the kids because she was working on the farm instead of being with them.
“I have been lucky to have such good support around me.”
It’s been more than 25 years since Rowe’s accident. He has accepted it but said at night he still dreams he has two arms.
“It’s funny, from the get-go I knew I was down to one arm, but I had to see a psychologist as part of my recovery, and he said when I stop dreaming that I’ve got two arms I’ve accepted the loss.
“I still dream I’ve got two, and I still say things like I’m going to go and wash my hands.”
When Rowe hears about an accident on a farm now, he is reminded of his own.
“I feel for people now, you can see how things happen, you get busy, you get tired, you might make a bad judgment call.”
Tony Rowe pictured on a quad bike after the accident that claimed his left arm.
