6 minute read
Simple Times
FALLING INTO PATIENCE
BY SUZY McCRAY
Seth Vick remembers climbing to the top of the grain bin to try to unclog the auger by using a pipe wrench for leverage the afternoon of September 24, 2022. He doesn’t remember the 75-foot-fall from the top of that grain bin face first into the concrete below.
“I don’t remember the fall at all,” he explains. “I don’t remember the helicopter ride. I have bits and pieces of memories of the 12 days at University Hospital in Birmingham. But not much.”
What Seth doesn’t remember, his family and churchgoers throughout Blount, Marshall and sur- rounding counties remember all too well.
Jania was at their home in Guntersville when she received the initial phone call and hurried to Blount County Road 36 to the Vick Quail Farm.
About three minutes out she received another phone call telling her Seth was in the helicopter, but they had delayed flying trying to get an IV in a vein, with his veins already collapsing because he had lost so much blood.
She made it before the helicopter lifted off and they allowed her to briefly see her husband, long enough to tell him she loved him and for him to say, “I love you and I love all our kids.” But he doesn’t remember that.
Seth had lost 40% of his body’s blood. Jania remembers they sat in UAB’s emergency room for seven and a half hours before being moved into the trauma unit there. Doctors were busily concentrating on keeping him alive as they struggled to assess all his other injuries.
He had three brain bleeds, 11 broken ribs, bones crushed throughout his face, his pelvis was crushed (for a total of 28 broken bones), and his liver, lungs, spleen and kidneys all had lacerations. Both legs and hands were later determined to be broken.
Folks throughout a several-county area began praying almost as soon as the accident happened as the Vick Farm is on the same road as their home church, Union Hill Baptist. Through Facebook and phone calls, the area’s residents began appealing to God on Seth and his family’s behalf.
After 12 days at UAB, Seth was sent to the rehab center where oldest daughter Carly works as an Occupational therapy assistant. Only when they were at rehab did doctors realize both his hands were broken as well!
Since Seth couldn’t really bear much weight on his legs and his broken pelvis and couldn’t bear any weight on his hands, he was sent home by ambulance!
“That’s just one of the reasons we know that God was in charge and was preparing us for this accident years before it happened,” Jania explains. "God was not surprised when all this happened. God was in charge of the careers that our children choose. Carly is going into Occupational Therapy and Grace Anne going into business. And Walker (now 14) being involved in just about everything.”
“We were not given any training at all on how to move Seth. We were just home,” Jania explains. “But Carly showed us how to move him, how to get him up, how to put him back in bed. She was literally a life saver. We wouldn’t have gotten through it without her and her knowledge. And Grace Anne already was in charge of the bookkeeping and other things about running the business.
“And Walker stepped in and did whatever was needed.”
Seth says, “Even though I was severely injured we had to keep the business going. And we have six fulltime employees and three part-time, so I never had to worry about that. They did their jobs and kept right on.”
The couple also credit her dad, Wayne Lochamy and his parents, Marvin and Fay Vick (from whom they lease the farm) for all their help.
And Jania adds, “Whenever I didn’t even know what I needed, our needs were met. I would just think about something that I needed or that needed doing, and somebody would be there already meeting that need. Somebody from church. Somebody in the family.”
The first days and weeks were extremely hard. Seth had to make many visits to his doctors and to various therapies and that resulted in 19 ambulance rides because they couldn’t transport him in any regular vehicle.
When asked what God showed him through all this, Seth is quick to reply “Patience. I’ve always been active. Always working on the farm or doing something else. Here I was confined to the bed for 20 to 22 hours a day. God gave me patience, or I would have gone completely stir crazy! I learned to make it one day at a time, one hour at a time.”
Seth continues therapy now four days each week, two days of physical therapy and two days of occupational therapy for his hands and arms.
“People don’t realize how weak they can become if muscles are not used," he explains. “I’m doing some strength exercises too.”
“I’m not going to tell you that it’s all been easy because it hasn’t. I am at a point now where I am extremely thankful for how far God has brought me. I went from being completely bedridden to a wheelchair, to walking with a walker and now with a cane. I always try to remember what all the Lord has brought me through.”
When asked if he’ll ever go back on top of that grain bin again, he notes that it will likely get stopped up again so “somebody will have to. But I tell you what. If I go up there again you can bet, I’ll have on a safety harness!”
Statistics on the internet from the National Agricultural Safety Database show that 33% of the farming population will be injured in some kind of accident on any given year. For every 100,000 agricultural workers, there are 19.4 deaths annually. Tractors are the leading cause of deaths for farmworkers primarily from roll overs, entanglements and simply getting run over.
But the majority of accidents occur when farmers and farmworkers are doing jobs they’ve done many times before and where they are often least expected.
“We are just so thankful,” Seth explains. “When I realize all the people who were praying for me, who I didn’t even know, God uses that to encourage me. We’ve experienced a big big blessing.”
Seth and Jania have several favorite Bible verses, but Isaiah 43:2 holds a special place after all they have been through. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”
(Suzy and husband Mack live on a homestead in Blount County, Alabama and can be reached on Face book or by email at suzy.mccray@yahoo.com)
