Starting a new job can be nerve-wracking for anyone, yet for one man, it quickly turned into a catastrophe as he narrowly escaped a devastating accident that resulted in the loss of both his legs.
John O’Neill had been on a positive path – he had achieved sobriety, found a new home, and secured a job he was passionate about, working with trees.
On his first day, just 15 minutes in, he was operating a wood chipper.
He inserted a hook-shaped branch into the machine, but it was flipped by the chipper’s blades.
Tragically, the hook snagged on an ankle monitor bracelet John was wearing due to a court requirement.
This dragged him into the wood chipper feet first, with the blades slicing through his boots, then his feet, ankle, and finally above the knee.
In the initial moments, John’s colleagues were unaware of the incident.
In an interview with the Denver Post, John recounted the horrific event.
He said: “I was yelling for help but everyone had ear protection on.
“It took a minute before my coworkers realized what was happening.”
The incident was brief, but by the time his coworkers managed to pull him out, the blades had reached up to John’s thighs.
He said: “I looked down and saw something that looked like what you see in movies.”
John described waking up in the hospital on September 24, the day after the accident.
He said: “I was in an excruciating amount of pain. I felt my legs were broken. It took me a minute to realize and remember what had just happened.”
When John looked down at the space where his legs once were, there was nothing.
“The pain was very – it was not there almost,” he said. “I didn’t really feel the pain as much as I knew I was in trouble. It went from a fight for my limb to a fight for my life, very fast.”
John remembered assisting a coworker in creating a tourniquet, stating: “I didn’t freak out, I did stay calm. My coworker said I was very cognitive throughout the whole thing.”
Thanks to his and his coworkers’ swift and calm actions, along with the medical team’s efforts, John survived this ordeal.
He now aims to resume his volunteer work and support those striving for sobriety once he receives prosthetics.
He said: “That’s the kind of goals I’m setting for myself to be right back there and I’m not going to listen to anyone who tells me that’s impossible.
“I’m someone who can do things I’ve never done before.”