Young farmer loses hand in harvesting accident
CBC
Warning: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing
P.E.I. farmer Ben Van Ginkel is on a long road to recovery, but he feels lucky to be alive and thankful for the support of his friends and neighbours.
The 23-year-old owns his own farm in Ebenezer, but he also has a self-propelled harvester. A big part of his business is taking that harvester out on the road in the fall to bring in the crop for other farmers. It's a busy time, running for weeks and with a day's work running up to 20 hours.
And that's not the only thing keeping the family busy. Ben's wife Rosa-Lynn gave birth to their third child last week.
On Saturday Van Ginkel was out on a job when something went wrong with the harvester, and he got down to fix it.
"I've done it before, a lot of times, and anyway, I missed the position of my foot and I slipped, and my hand fell into the knives," he said.
"I was just lucky there was one of my hired help beside me that looked after me because [the] bleeding was real bad, and he wrapped up my arm and brought me to the road to get to an ambulance."
He was taken to hospital but the hand couldn't be saved.
Van Ginkel is now out of intensive care, but he is still in the hospital and dealing with a lot of pain.
The harvester is still out in the fields, operated by an employee, and VanGinkel is doing his best to run the business from his hospital bed.
But he and his wife are far from alone in their troubles. Neighbours are showing up to help out at the farm, and Ellen Peters, who lives next door, has helped launch a GoFundMe campaign.
Peters is not a farmer herself, but has always been impressed with their work ethic and sense of community.
"We live all around farmers and we appreciate all the hard work," she said.
"I find them all to be very, very hardworking and humble people. And like, they're such a tight-knit community."
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