Tyrone farmer impaled by forklift praises rescuers

A farmer from Tyrone has praised the ambulance team that saved his life after he was impaled by a forklift.

Jonathan Willis, who is originally from Benburb but now lives in Cambridgeshire, was pierced through his lower back and out through his abdomen in an accident on his farm in October last year.

He told BBC Good Morning Ulster, “The lads who usually do the loading of the straw were away cutting maize, so I was left to load the lorries that were going back to Northern Ireland.

“Basically I was taking the lorry straps off the trailer and the loader rolled forward and the spike just went in through.”

Mr Willis said the spike that went through him was around four feet long, and weighed one stone when rescuers cut it off.

Asked what he thought when the spike went through, Mr Willis said, “Right, I’m in a bit of a predicament here,” adding, “There are no words to describe what goes through your head.”

Mr Willis’ wife, Wendy, said she was in “disbelief” when she saw the scene, and said emergency services arrived within “a matter of minutes”, including an air ambulance.

It has been described as a “miracle” that the spike missed all of Mr Willis’ vital organs. “There was nothing I could do, so I just had to stay calm,” he said.

Members of the fire brigade used an angle grinder from the farm to cut the spike off the forklift and Mr Willis was taken to the hospital with the pole still in place.

He said, “That was the most painful part. It was that long they couldn’t fit me into the air ambulance, so we had to go by the road and going around the roundabouts and speed bumps into the hospital mean the pain was unreal.”

The surgery to remove the spike lasted for seven hours, and Mrs Willis says the surgeons “could not believe” that it had not caused more damage.

The couple are now fundraising for East Anglian Air Ambulance, as well as awareness for the work of crews across the country.

“What happened to me was just an unusual accident, and I’m just so, so thankful that there were so many expert teams available to help get me through it. Otherwise the outcome would have been very different,” Mr Willis said.

He also hopes the incident will act as a lesson on farm safety so people take all necessary precautions when operating machinery.