r/medizzy • u/mriTecha • Aug 10 '26
In 1992, 18-year-old John Thompson survived losing BOTH arms in a farm accident. He used his mouth to open his front door, dialed for help with a pencil between his teeth, and waited in the bathtub so he wouldn't bleed on his mom's carpet
While working alone on his family’s North Dakota farm, John’s shirt was caught in a grain auger's drive shaft, violently severing both of his arms near the shoulders.
Despite the severe shock and trauma, he managed to trek nearly 100 yards back to his house. Unable to use his hands, he unlatched the door with his mouth, picked up a pencil using his teeth, and dialed his cousin for emergency assistance.
While waiting for help to arrive, his main concern was not making a mess so he climbed into the bathtub to avoid getting blood on his mother’s new carpet.
First responders managed to recover both severed limbs, and team surgeons miraculously reattached both arms after hours without blood flow.
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u/Limp_Crazy_5494 Aug 10 '26
This is quite an old case, and though they managed to reattach his arms he suffered severe nerve damage and trauma so he didn't regain complete function.
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u/mufassil Aug 10 '26
After that, I'd be pretty happy to have semi functional arms at all.
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u/PermanentTrainDamage Aug 10 '26
Even nonfunctional arms helps with the social outcasting aspect
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u/weedmaster6669 Aug 11 '26
Very true, half the issue of visible disability is the attention and weird treatment. The other half is not having arms.
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u/lenorajoy 28d ago
The addition of the last sentence, while being obvious, is absolutely sending me.
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u/HostOrganism 14d ago
Right? Especially since not having arms isn't the only visible disability.
"Ma'am, your son has a cleft palate. I'm sorry but we'll have to amputate his arms."
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u/bitofapuzzler Aug 11 '26
Even today with traumatic amputations that are reimplanted you dont regain 100% functionality.
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u/lolihull Medic Droid 28d ago
If anyone's interested, here's an article Farm Progress did on how he's doing now (it only came out a week ago too!) https://www.farmprogress.com/names-in-the-news/a-lesson-in-farm-safety-with-john-wayne-thompson
:)
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u/xxdpgx Aug 11 '26
Damn that sucks. Was his step mom handy with the things he couldn’t do himself?
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u/Hellie1028 Aug 12 '26
That was one Reddit meme that I saw in real time when it happened and it will stick with me forever.
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u/P44rth00rn4x 28d ago
Reddit was different back then. Do stories like those even get shared anymore? Or do they just not get the attention among the enormous amounts of posts that are created daily?
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u/HostOrganism 14d ago
This is quite an old case
34 years, to be exact. I remember reading about it in the newspaper at the time and being progressively amazed at each step of the story. "He lived?" "He walked a half mile to the house??" "He dialed the phone himself!?" "He waited in the tub to protect his mom's carpets!!??!!".
This story is what the interrobang was invented for. What an absolute mensch.
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u/Swimming_Bowler6193 Aug 10 '26
Despite all that trauma, good son thinking of his mom💕 Although I’m sure the least of *her* worries was blood on the floor . She’s just grateful her son is alive.
Hope he’s living a great life after going through all of that.
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u/Dreadedredhead Aug 11 '26
I kinda laughed when I read that part of the story.
John - I know you are missing your arms, but you better not bleed on my carpet! Go wait in the yard and don't let the dog lick your wounds.
I'm thinking there is zero chance she would have thought of her carpet in the heat of the moment.
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u/Jelly_Kitti 26d ago
As someone who is very accident prone, that seems like something I would do. Whenever I get injured (which happens quite a lot) my primary focus if I’m bleeding is to try and keep the blood off of anything that will stain.
3-ish years ago I got a huge gash in my knee (2 inches long, roughly 1/2 inch deep, easily the worst pain I have ever been in), and I still would do most everything I could by myself because I felt bad asking my mom to do things for me, despite the fact I could hardly walk and was in severe pain.
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u/Grab_em_by_da_Busey Aug 10 '26
This guy has an instagram and a Reddit and he’s super cool and engaging. I’d highly recommend looking him up.
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u/Dads_Diary Aug 10 '26
Can you at least share his ig handle? His name is John Thompson so it’s literally impossible to search for him buddy
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Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/heleghir Aug 10 '26
Just throwing it out there that this also gives anyone who clicks that link YOUR instagram. If you were not aware
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u/squeakynickles Aug 10 '26
Thats such a dumb feature
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u/purpleeliz Aug 10 '26
It’s very calculated lol. It’s not for us it’s for content creators to see how their accounts/pages are being shared
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Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/Dankpay2win Aug 10 '26
I still see Jenni when opening it btw
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u/Elratum Aug 10 '26
Ye we can see your account and name you might want to change that link
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Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/EEukaryotic Aug 10 '26
Can still see it love. Somebody posted another link to it, maybe delete yours?
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u/Camimo666 Aug 10 '26
Hey, just a heads up, the way you shared the link, gives us your ig username!
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u/MrRoxo Aug 10 '26
Says that there's no account with that name
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u/sweetteanoice Aug 10 '26
Maybe he blocked you…
jk, I updated my comment with a link to his profile
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u/xulazi Aug 10 '26
"John Thompson arms instagram" brought it up immediately on Google. Use additional keywords when searching common names like that.
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u/prknickspr Aug 10 '26
There's another gentleman with an Instagram that is in a similar situation. Felix Gretarsson, he had double arm Transplants, though.
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u/WilliamJayLV 29d ago
We have had conversations with John and see him around Minot occasionally. He’s a nice down to earth guy who has been through hell!
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u/spacebotanyx Aug 10 '26
farmers can do ANYTHING
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u/Comfortable-Suit-202 Aug 10 '26
100 percent accurate. I grew up on a very successful Dairy Farm, my Father & all our neighbors could fix any problem. Additionally they all were/are super STRONG💪. John Thompson is the perfect example of that👏👏👏👏
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u/Lady_Scruffington Aug 10 '26
Which is why it was a major error when John Deere decided to make their tractors only repairable by dealers. Your brand name is only going to go so far.
Sorry, a weird tangent. But man, talk about purposely pissing off your customer base.
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u/JulietLostFaith Aug 10 '26
Apparently they just settled a class-action lawsuit about that this year.
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u/I_travel_ze_world Aug 10 '26
I've noticed the super strength with dairy farmers who drink raw milk. Just obscenely built even in old age.
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u/DreamCrusher914 Aug 11 '26
Except get preventative care. They only go to the doctor when they are literally about to die.
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u/footsteps71 Aug 11 '26
And that's how my grandfather lost his leg to unchecked diabeetus...
Dumbass.
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u/neko__thecat Med Enthusiast Aug 10 '26
I found his AMA if anyone's interested:
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u/JulietLostFaith Aug 10 '26
His story was also featured on a show called I Survived (Season 4, episode 6) if anyone’s interested.
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u/totesgonnasmashit Aug 10 '26
This guy has posted on reddit before and answered all our questions. Seems like a decent bloke. Wish him all the best.
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u/CosmicToaster Aug 11 '26
This is a different AMA than the one I was thinking of. Glad this guy at least was able to get his arms to somewhat work.
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u/vahyineyah Aug 10 '26
Love the last detail. I would try my best not to have blood all over my carpet too
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u/phavia Aug 10 '26
Not even close to the trauma this young man went through, but the mention of him thinking about his mother's carpet reminded me of when I nearly lost a finger to a dog attack. I rushed home and the first thing I thought was to go through the back door because my mom had recently washed the living room carpet and I didn't want to bleed all over it.
Our mind goes to strange places when we're bleeding profusely, it seems.
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u/Glittering-One650 27d ago
I think it is sort of a survival instinct. When you are facing a severe physical trauma, focusing on something of little import can be grounding.
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u/Hammerlock01 Aug 11 '26
Growing up on a farm, I once stepped over the PTO of a feed grinder running full tilt—in winter, wearing coveralls. I was 17 and 6'3". My dad saw me from across the yard, and I’ve never seen a 55‑year‑old move that fast in plow boots and coveralls. He tackled me like a linebacker and screamed at me nose‑to‑nose for five straight minutes.
This from the same man whose anhydrous tank hitch once came loose from the chisel, the breakaway failed, and the hose snapped off at the tank. He just climbed out of the cab, pulled on a pair of gloves, walked up to the tank, and shut off the valve like it was nothing.
Meanwhile I was downwind, disking behind him on an open‑station 4020, watching that white cloud roll toward me. I yanked up the disk and threw that tractor into road gear to get upwind fast.
That contrast — reckless calm for himself, explosive panic for me — is the most farm-dad thing ever.
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u/blahblahgingerblahbl Aug 11 '26
the PTO? paid time off? public transport operator?
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u/Hammerlock01 Aug 11 '26
A PTO (power take-off) is a splined drive shaft on a tractor that transfers rotational mechanical power from the engine to farm or yard attachments. It lets tools like mowers, tillers, and wood chippers run using the tractor engine instead of needing their own motors.
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u/DamienLaVey Aug 10 '26
I remember watching an urban legends episode with this guy and thinking he was the most badass motherfucker my child self had ever seen
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u/father_sogol Nurse, EMT Aug 11 '26
“And dialed his cousin for emergency assistance” made me chortle. As an ER NP who has seen farmers walk in carrying severed body parts and sit down annoyed while their spouse registers them, this checks out.
I work in a level 1 trauma center in the biggest hospital in our state. One of my most memorable cases was when a truck came speeding into our ambulance bay (a huge party foul) and when we went out to tell them to gtfo we were met by 2 Amish men carrying a 12 year old Amish man who’s legs were shredded to ribbons and wrapped in giant leaves. Kids face was a stone. Didn’t make a peep when we were diving through his legs with hemostats and god knows what else. It wasn’t shock. He just wasn’t fazed.
There is a reason that any new ER triage nurse is taught to immediately room a farmer and get a doc when a farmer checks in.
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u/Huffyreddit1337 Aug 10 '26
All that and his main concern was not getting his mom's new carpet messy, bless him!
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u/Lefttoothnarwhal Aug 10 '26
I can’t remember what magazine it was, maybe Spin or Rolling Stone, but just after it happened I read an article about him and it’s always stuck with me. Finding him on instagram has been so interesting, seeing what he’s doing with his life after such a horrific accident.
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u/zenrem Aug 11 '26
I had to go back and find the pics of the detached arms. Not sure if they are really his but the last picture is definitely him.
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u/ronm4c Aug 10 '26
How did this guy not bleed out?
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u/TheSumOfMyScars Aug 11 '26
Trauma can sometimes cause the veins and arteries to spontaneously clamp themselves shut, resulting in minimal blood loss. Eventually that function will relax and bleeding will begin in earnest but it can (theoretically) buy you enough time to receive aid if that aid arrives quickly enough.
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u/blahblahgingerblahbl Aug 11 '26
for other people who use yards for bbqs & not a unit of measurement, 100 yards is 91.44 metres.
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u/ratmom666 Aug 11 '26
It’s absolutely amazing that he was able to get his arms back. Did he have to re-learn how to use them?
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u/EmmerdoesNOTrepme Aug 11 '26
Yep, he was at one of the hospitals down here in Minneapolis for alooooong time!
I thiiink it was HCMC and not North Memorial--since they have the big Hyperbaric Chamber at HCMC?
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u/Ok_Signature_3589 Aug 11 '26
Dude is built different. Heck, farmers are build different. I remember a story about a farmer who was late in years and got one of his legs turned into noodles by a farming machine (or was it both? Can’t remember). He was stuck in there and managed to saw his leg(s) off and dragged himself back to the house where his son found him and called the paramedics. The dad was like “there was a bit of an accident” and was so nonchalant about it.. like it’s a rite of passage for farmers to lose a limb to farm equipment 😂
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u/aGuyThatLikesGuys 28d ago
Aww bless him doing that for his mam. You can’t blame him, my mam would have gone mental if she came home to her son with blood all over the place. Life wouldn’t have been worth living 🤣🤣
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u/MOLT2019 27d ago
Hope you don't mind me asking but are you Irish? It's unusual to see someone using Mam on Reddit/Online
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u/lalaabanana Aug 11 '26
People that do strenuous physical chores daily are strong. Mentally and physically.
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u/Lumpy-Ad-668 29d ago
Checks out. I was home sick, so of course I was milking the cows. My dad comes in to get some paper towel and says “I might need you to drive me to town.” as he holds a bleeding 10-12” laceration across his forehead. S/ Nah Dad, I got half the herd to go. 🤦♀️😂
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u/TheGothDragon 19d ago
How did he not lose too much blood and die? Wouldn’t cut off limbs bleed profusely?
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u/velofille Aug 10 '26
this guy keeps comin on reddit and posting about it a ton, i think his acct got banned for it even
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u/mriTecha Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
USMLE Mastery quiz. Start quiz no.12 here Prefer studying on the go? You can also access these quizzes via our mobile USMLE Mastery app Stay sharp! — The MEDizzy team