Last July 3, everything changed for Tim Donovan of Worthing.
He was pumping fuel off his truck at Countryside Convenience at 1 or 2 a.m. when he noticed a new piece on the truck was leaking. He checked on it a couple of times and when he turned to leave, his pant leg got caught on a power takeoff.
The PTO slammed him into the ground and broke his left leg and then took the skin off his right leg. He also tore his right rotator cuff.
“It took me a few minutes, am I going to lay here and die or I’ve got to something,” Tim said. “I pushed myself clear onto the truck. I pushed myself up so I could reach in and grab the phone and call.”
The Worthing Fire Department and Canton Ambulance arrived and transported him to Sanford in Sioux Falls.
Tim spent July 3-19 in the hospital, where his doctor performed surgery on his left knee and grafted his skin on the right leg.
“He’s so fussy he wouldn’t let anybody but him or his assistant change the bandages when I was in the hospital. That’s the kind of doctor you want,” he said.
After his time in the hospital, he was transferred to Good Samaritan Village for rehabilitation. Rehab started out difficult with his skin graft breaking. He spent two and a half months where he could not walk. He had to be lifted everywhere.
“It was rough,” Tim said. “You lose your dignity and independence.”
“There was some depression right away too,” said his wife, Denise.
He was able to leave rehab in October. However, he was only home until February when he was having severe pain in the back of his left leg.
They figured out that he had a torn meniscus and ACL. In March they put in a new knee. However, things did not go well.
“Things were just starting to go pretty good and I got an infection, real bad,” Tim said.
They put in a pic line to administer the antibiotics and his knee had to be immobile for three weeks.
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