A man who was attending his first day at a new job got into a horrific accident with a wood chipper, which saw him lose both legs.
John O’Neill, 33, who was wearing a court-ordered ankle monitor at the time, was working his first shift as a tree worker in Longmont on September 24.
O’Neill, a recovering addict who had recently turned his life around, was excited to start his new job.
However, just 15 minutes into the workday, he suffered a life-altering accident that led to both his legs being amputated above the knee.
A branch caught his tracking device and pulled him into the wood chipper machine. The incident occurred around 10:18AM, according to a report by the Denver Post.
The branch snagged his ankle monitor, dragging his leg into the machine’s rotating blades. His toes, foot, ankle, and legs were quickly caught in the blades, but O’Neill’s coworkers did not immediately hear his screams for help due to their ear protection.
“It took a minute before my coworkers realized what was happening,” O’Neill told the Denver Post. As the machine continued to cut into him, O’Neill began fearing for his life.
“Something happened in my brain to where I realized I was in fear for a lot more than just losing my leg or my foot,” he recalled.
“The pain was very — it was not there almost. 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.”
O’Neill described the scene as something straight out of a movie, saying he saw “skin, bones, muscle, and a lot of blood” coming from his legs.
Despite the gruesome nature of the accident, O’Neill managed to stay remarkably calm in an attempt to keep his heart rate down.
“I didn’t freak out, I did stay calm,” he said. “My coworker said I was very cognitive throughout the whole thing.”
A coworker eventually pulled O’Neill out of the machine just as the blades reached his mid-thighs.
O’Neill used a nearby rope to fashion a makeshift tourniquet, which likely helped save his life.
Although he drifted in and out of consciousness, he credits his coworkers with keeping him alive by using sternum rubs to prevent him from slipping into unconsciousness.
First responders arrived soon after, applying proper tourniquets to his legs before rushing him to a local hospital.
O’Neill was then airlifted to St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, near Denver.
During the helicopter ride, O'Neill said he "technically died," as his heart stopped beating. He was revived en route to the hospital.
O’Neill believes that the design of the ankle monitor played a significant role in preventing him from freeing himself from the wood chipper.
Doctors were forced to amputate the remainder of O’Neill’s severely damaged legs and had to give him 15 pints of blood.
“They essentially replaced all the blood in my body,” O’Neill said.
A GoFundMe campaign to help cover O’Neill’s medical bills has already raised significant funds as he continues his recovery.
