God’s Hand on a Farmer By Darlene Palmer
Danny Ray, Derek Palmer, Carl Lucas and Johnny Ray
Every now and then something extraordinary happens and, for one farmer in Hamilton, Alabama, the unfolding events of this story changed his life forever. Carl Lucas, owner of Lucas Farms, started out his day Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019, by heading to the shed to bag corn. As usual, he met with his friend and fellow farmer, Danny Ray, owner of Ray Farms, to get the day rolling and get many bags of corn out. But, on this day, something different happened. Carl was reaching near the auger as the corn was moving up the elevator to the grain bin when the wind blew his shirt sleeve into the power take-off. Carl was jerked in under the auger, flipping him three times causing his left arm to be pulled off near the shoulder. Another friend and farmer, Johnny Ray, jumped into action by turning off the auger. Without hesitation, one of Carl’s workers, Derek Palmer, jumped off the ladder at the top of the grain bin and crawled up under the auger to get to Carl. With an adrenaline rush, Derek picked up Carl, who was twice his weight, and pulled him out. Carl’s arm was pumping out blood. His face had turned gray.
Johnny cut Carl’s T-shirt, and both he and Derek wrapped what was left of his left arm in a handmade tourniquet. With those life-saving efforts, the blood flow stopped. Johnny continued to brace Carl’s head in his lap. Carl could not move his left leg which appeared to be broken, so Derek braced the leg to prevent any further movement. Amazingly, during this time, a still conscious Carl told Derek to go close the door on the grain bin because the corn was falling out. Derek did just that. Danny quickly called 911 and stayed on the phone giving directions and waiting on the Hamilton RPS and Hamilton Fire and Rescue to arrive. After observing Carl, the paramedics did not see any blood at that time leaking from the tourniquet, so they decided to put another medical tourniquet over the handmade one. While being put in the ambulance, a paramedic asked Carl how he was doing and Carl replied, “I am doing fine. You need to go check on the other three at the shed.” Due to the seriousness of Carl’s injuries, there was a need for Air Evac to transport him to a hosJanuary 2021
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