Friend saves Fritcher's life
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 08/09/2010 3:30 PM
E-mail article | Print version
CALMAR, Iowa —Ruthie Fritcher held up an old wood step stool and said that she owed her life to it and to good friend Dean Schwade, who farms with her.
She told children at the recent Progressive Ag Safety Day at Northeast Iowa Community College at Calmar, that she remembers her birthday, her wedding day and her daughter's birthday, but she also remembers April 23, 2008, the day of her farm accident.
Fritcher raises 1,200 acres of corn and soybeans near Lime Springs. She has 320 acres away from the main farm with two grain bins on it.
To fill semi-trucks with grain from that site, she and her husband, Dave, have a PTO shaft and auger hooked up to an Allis Chalmers WD 45. They set it up so that all she had to do was pull the wire starter on the tractor, and the PTO automatically powered the auger.
Fritcher said she didn't like to crawl up the back of the tractor because she was afraid she'd get caught in the PTO, so she used her step stool to get up on the side of the tractor. Because she could pull the starter by standing on the stool, she got so that she didn't even bother getting on the tractor seat. She did that a thousand times, but she cautioned the children that it wasn't a good idea.
On the day of her accident, she thinks that when she went to start the tractor, she hit the gear shift and knocked the tractor in gear. The tractor started moving. She tried to get out of the way but tripped and fell down. The tractor tire went up on the stool missing her head and coming down on her shoulder. It was crushedt. She was on the ground and she could see the running PTO and auger coming at her, and she closed her eyes.
"I was scared," she said. "Luckily Dean was there and got the tractor stopped. I owe him my life. He had to go down the driveway and call 911 on the cell phone because we didn't have cell phone reception at the bin site. He also called my husband at work."
Fritcher said that the First Responders arrived within minutes and called Mayo 1, the air ambulance, because of the severity of her injuries. The ambulance from LeRoy, Minn., and a fire truck from Chester were also on the scene.
They got Fritcher stabilized and transported her by ambulance to the Chester ball field to meet the helicopter. The 45-mile trip to Rochester took 11 minutes.
"The ambulance crew are professionals," Fritcher said. "They made me so comfortable and told me everything that was going to happen."
Fritcher showed the children how her shoulder cracked like the shell of a hard-boiled egg.
She spent three days in the hospital, was home for a few days, and then back in Rochester for two days of surgery. A long recovery followed.
"Am I blessed?" Fritcher asked. "Yes, I think about that every day. I think I'm more cautious. I look at all you little people. I have a grandson your age. I want you to listen to the speakers so that you know what to do if you find somebody like me lying on the ground. I hope that you never have to do that, but if you do, you'll know what to do."