Colburn Hvidston III / Forum News Service file photo Little more than six weeks after his farm accident, John Thompson is released from the hospital and returns Feb. 25, 1992, to his home in Hurdsfield, N.D.
NO ‘WHAT IFS’
Man whose arms were ripped off in 1992 farm accident focuses on the good
By Tracy Briggs | Forum News Service
I
t’s pretty clear John Thompson is a guy who doesn’t get rattled by much. But today his cat, Toby, is getting on his last nerve. The 10-year-old rescue cat keeps hitting the phone where Thompson is trying to have a Zoom call with Forum News Service. “I have my phone sitting on his cat tree, so he’s trying to play,” said the exasperated Thompson while trying to reposition the phone Toby knocked over. But Toby’s interruptions are small potatoes for this 47-year-old survivor — a man who, 29 years ago Jan. 11, had both his arms ripped off in a farm accident. The subsequent surgery to reattach his arms garnered
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international media attention — all a little daunting for the then 18-year-old farm kid from Hurdsfield, N.D. The media attention has long since quieted down. So what is Thompson up to now? Have the years been good to him? Can he still use his arms? Were there drawbacks to his instant fame? And what brings him joy today?
‘I didn’t know what was going on’
On Saturday morning, Jan. 11, 1992, Thompson was unloading pig feed with a grain auger and playing with the dog when he somehow got too close to the power takeoff shaft (PTO), which didn’t have a safety shield on it.
