Fall 2000
Agricultural
Health: info for health care
providers
by Kelley J.
Donham
During the last two months
there have been at least two serious cases involving animals. One of the cases resulted in
two fatalities. The first case involved a farmer who was trying to get the cattle back in
from a freshly picked cornfield. He felt
that, as the cattle had not been used to eating corn, they may suffer from laminitis
(founder, a condition of overeating affecting the hoof wall) if they were out there too
long. In attempting to get the cattle in, he got between a calf and its mother. The cow
decided it was going to get to the calf, and blitzed the would be drover, knocking him to
the ground, resulting in multiple fractured ribs, and internal as well as external
contusions (bruising). He got up, got to his pickup, and somehow got to the hospital. He
was in serious condition, in intensive care and on a respirator for nearly two weeks. He
is now home, and should recover fully over the next three to four months. He is 65 years
old.
During the first week of
October, one of three brothers lay in a hospital in Northeast Iowa, suffering from a
severe mauling by a young Angus bull. He had been trying to move the bull from an open
lot, to a smaller pen in the barn. The bull decided differently, and proceeded to knock
the man down causing numerous internal injuries and a compound fracture of his tibia and
fibula. While in the hospital being treated, he was worried by the fact that his two
brothers that he farmed with had not been up to the hospital to see him. He contacted
relatives, who went out to the farm and found the bodies of his two brothers in the pen
with the bull, who had killed them both. The two deceased brothers were 79 and 84.
A few years back, a dairy
farmer near North Liberty was moving his Holstein bull to a new pen. The bull again decided that was not what he
wanted, and proceeded to knock the man down, and pummeled him into the ground. He was able
to get away, but was having extreme difficulty breathing. Although he was the only person
home, he somehow managed to get himself to the hospital. They diagnosed “flail
chest” which means all of his ribs were broken, making it nearly impossible to
breathe. They put him on a respirator, and he managed a slow recovery over the next year.
That dairy farm went out of business at the end of that year, because the owners injuries
caused disabilities that kept him from doing the work necessary to keep up the operation.
The owner was 56 years old at the time.
These cases represent
several facts and implications about agricultural injuries that should be recognized.
Injuries are often studied by the three main parameters that may have resulted in the
injuries (human factors, agent factors, and environmental factors). After each category
below, write what you think a response might be, then look forward to see if we have some
ideas and thoughts in common in this case.
Questions: