Most people have no idea how dangerous a farm can be, I know I had no idea until I watched this story. I have a whole new perspective and deeper respect for the people who produce our foods now.
When 23 Year old, New Providence, Iowa farmer, Arick Baker decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, and help run the family farm, he had no idea that his work, one day might come close to killing him. Statistically Arick had more of a chance of dying than surviving, when he fell in to his father’s corn silo. Rescuers in the mid west know, that if they get a call for a rescue because someone has fallen into a corn silo, it is almost always the dead body they retrieve. People are usually dead by the time they get to them. The corn envelopes the person like quick sand, is forced by weighted pressure into the lungs, and body, and kills them quickly by crushing, and suffocation.
Arick had been working on breaking up large chunks of rotten corn, that were jamming up the corn from going through a chute to be taken away by transport. Arick was alone when he decided to take one last poke at the corn, and it was then that he broke through an air cavity. When he poked through, it collapsed the cavity, all the corn fell through filling in the cavity area, and it dragged Arick down into the corn much like sinking into quicksand. Arick has stated that, “within 10 seconds he was sucked under the corn, and had two feet of corn on top of his head.” Only the fingers on one hand were poking through the corn because he had went down with his arm reaching up. The weight of the corn was the equivalent of 450 pounds bearing up against his chest, making breathing excruciatingly difficult. He quickly learned not to thrash around, as every movement would cause the corn to flow like water towards him. When it flowed inward to him it brought even more weight, pressure, and pain.
Fortunately Arick was wearing a mask when he fell through the corn, and it is credited with saving his life. Arick had suffered with Asthma from a young age. So one day while at a farm show his parents bought him a $350.00 mask. It was a battery powered ventilation mask, that came down over his face with a visor, and cloth, that tied beneath the chin. Rescuers did not know he had been wearing it, and presumed he was automatically dead. They were searching for his body in the silo when they heard Arick screaming for help. When they found his hand sticking up, and that he was actually alive they were beyond shocked. The rescue effort then became frenzied, and urgent. You will see from Arick’s testimony, and the video, things were far from over! More near disasters were to happen, and the dramatic rescue was far from an easy one. Below is the full length story of Arick’s miraculous story. This was so suspenseful I could not tear myself away from watching this, his story is so profound. You will not be able to watch this without emotional tears as you watch him and the rescuers overcome this near tradgedy.
