Farmer's 'Final Call' to Wife After Legs Get Stuck In Blades Of Grain Machine

Jul 25, 2019 by apost team

What started as a normal workday ended in tragedy for one Australian farmer. Gavin Boekel was working on his family's emu farm when he fell into an auger machine.

The young father of five realized that his chances of surviving were slim, so he did what any loving husband would do: He called his wife and thanked her for being a mother to his children.

When Rochelle Boekel's phone rang on the morning of May 14th, she didn't realize that her life would be forever changed. Her husband told her he was stuck and didn't think he was going to make it. He said that he loved her and thanked her for being such a wonderful mother.

"He said 'I'm stuck, I love you – thank you for being the mother of my children'," Rachelle Boekel told the Courier Mail, as per the Daily Mail.

First responders arrived at the farm expected to find Gavin dead. They were shocked to discover that he was still conscious. One of his legs was crushed in the machinery, and the other leg had been cut off below the knee. He was losing blood, and his back appeared to be broken, but Gavin was always a fighter.

"He did such a great job, I got teary watching it - I'm just so proud of him because he has really struggled," Rachelle Boekel told the Gatton Star.

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Queensland Fire and Emergency Services had to disassemble the machinery to extract Gavin. They then used a forklift to transport him to a waiting helicopter. In order to stabilize Gavin, paramedics had to perform a surgical procedure in the unsanitary paddocks.

He was placed in a medically induced coma. The entire process took almost five hours.

Gavin spent the next 19 hours in surgery. His back is fractured in 7 places. He lost one leg, and his pelvis is cracked. His right leg is completely shattered and needs to be rebuilt. He's on a ventilator because he can't breathe on his own, but he beat the odds and survived.

Rochelle Boekel is grateful that her husband is alive, but she knows that the next few years will be difficult. Gavin is expected to spend at least two years in a rehabilitation facility. Rochelle hopes to move her family closer to the hospital so that they can support Gavin during his recovery.

In early June, Gavin developed a life-threatening infection in his leg. A bacteria culture showed that flesh-eating bacteria and four different antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria were causing the infection.

Doctors had to amputate more of Gavin's leg. They believe the infection happened because of the unsanitary conditions where the accident occurred. A farm is one of the worst places to have an open wound.

Fortunately, Gavin pulled through.

Seven weeks after the accident that almost took her husband's life, Rochelle Boekel announced that Gavin was starting physiotherapy. He'll need to learn to walk again and rebuild the muscles that atrophied while he was on life support. It's going to be a long recovery, but Gavin has already proved that he is a survivor.

Australia has universal healthcare, so the Boekel family won't have to worry about paying any medical bills, but the accident has still taken a toll on their finances. Friends set up a GoFundMe campaign to help Gavin's family.

They hope to use the funds to rent a home near Gavin's hospital, make the Boekel home handicap accessible and pay for new school uniforms for their children.

It's difficult to imagine what you would say your loved ones if you thought you were dying. We can't begin to understand what Rochelle Boekel felt when she answered that phone call. Tag your friends, and spread the word about the Boekel's GoFundMe campaign.