From Tractor Rollovers to Grain Entrapment: A Field Guide to Farm Emergencies

The mechanism behind agricultural emergencies can completely change the risk to both the patient and the responders arriving to help. Ross talks with Jessica Wilburn, Agromedicine Nurse Coordinator, and Maggie Denning, Outreach Coordinator with the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute, about the injuries and environmental hazards first responders may encounter in agricultural communities. They cover tractor rollovers, livestock injuries, pesticide and fumigant exposure, grain-bin entrapment, hydraulic injection injuries, and machinery involving augers and power takeoff shafts. The conversation also covers responder safety, including how to recognize when machinery is still energized, why a barn or greenhouse call may involve dangerous chemical exposure, and how local farmers can sometimes be one of your best sources of information. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why farmers often minimize injuries, and why “minor” complaints deserve a closer look Why grain bins and manure lagoons can create secondary victims when rescuers enter How a tiny hydraulic-fluid puncture wound can threaten an entire extremity despite looking benign at first What a first responder should do first when approaching moving farm machinery   Resources: Want more? Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Confidence Dispatch. Want individualized coaching and mentorship? Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship. Just have a question and want some personalized help? Book a free coaching call with us. North Carolina Agromedicine Institute Guests: Jessica Wilburn, Agromedicine Nurse Coordinator, North Carolina Agromedicine Institute Maggie Denning, CNA and Outreach Coordinator, North Carolina Agromedicine Institute