After Getting Stuck In Farming Equipment, Farmer Amputates His Own Leg & Makes It Out Alive

How far would you go to survive? Are you brave enough to cut off your own leg? We might think we're brave enough but not all of us could go the extra mile to get out of a life and death situation.

63-year-old farmer Kurt Kaser from Pender village in Thurston County, Nebraska, amputated his own leg to save his own life after he found himself stuck in farming equipment. Kaser has been a grain farmer for more than 40 years and he never thought that he could face such a situation ever in his life.

"I was unloading corn into a bin, well, moving corn and taking it from one place to the other," Kurt Kaser told KETV.

He was only doing his daily job: he got out of his truck and turned the corner but unfortunately it was not his day. "If I could have got by that first load, unloading, I think I would have thought of it or seen it, but I was in that routine like I used to do and I didn't think of it," he said.

KETV

"Stepped into the hopper in the little hole. It just sucked my leg in and I was trying to pull it out, but it kept pulling," he explained.

There was no one around to help him and he knew no one will be there for a long time. He couldn¡¯t find his cell phone and every minute was making him more desperate that led him to such a desperate measure.

"When it first happened, I remember thinking, 'This ain't good. This is not good at all,'" Kaser said.

"I thought, 'How long am I going to stay conscious here?' I did know what to expect. I felt it jerk me again and I thought it would grab me and pull me in further," Kaser said.

He was left with only one option. "I had my pocket knife in my pocket. I said, 'The only way I'm getting out of here is to cut it off,' so I just started sawing at it."

And the man amputated his own leg. "When I was cutting it, the nerve endings, I could feel, like, the ping every time I sawed around that pipe, and all at once it went and it let me go and I got the heck out of there".

He then had to crawl at least 150 feet to make a call for help. He was then transferred to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital-Lincoln Campus where he was given proper treatment. He also went through physical and occupational therapy.

KETV

Occupational therapist Dani Willey said, "He told me his goal, basically, 'I need to get home and get back to what I was doing before,' which was farming. Kaser had a very positive attitude no matter whatever happened."

On Friday, he was released from the rehabilitation center. Before he gets the prosthetic leg he needs to wait for the leg to get healed properly. Kaser also said that this won¡¯t stop him from farming and he wishes to learn from his mistake.