Landscaper Loses Both Legs in Freak Woodchipper Accident

A 33-year-old Colorado man is lucky to be alive after he lost both of his legs and “technically died” following a freak accident involving a woodchipper during his first day at a new job, The Denver Post reported.

On Sept. 24, John O’Neill was beginning his first day of work as a landscaper. It was something of a fresh start for O’Neill, who previously battled addiction but had recently left rehab and entered a stable housing situation. At the time, O’Neill was still affixed with a court-ordered ankle monitor from a previous legal matter.

Just 15 minutes after beginning work, O’Neill tossed a hook-shaped branch into a woodchipper, which the machine spun around, allowing the hooked end of the branch to catch O’Neill’s ankle monitor and drag him into the rotating blades. O’Neill was “gripping the edge of a wood chipper as blades whipped through his legs below,” the Post reported.

“Something happened in my brain to where I realized I was in fear for a lot more than just losing my leg or my foot,” he recalled. “The pain was very—it was not there almost. I didn’t really feel the pain as much as I knew I was in trouble. It went from a fight for my limb to a fight for my life, very fast.”

O’Neill watched helplessly as the blades sliced through his boots, then his feet, and then began working up his legs. “I was yelling for help but everyone had ear protection on,” he said. “It took a minute before my coworkers realized what was happening.”

Eventually, O’Neill was able to alert his co-workers, but not before the blades had already eaten up to his thigh. “I looked down and saw something that looked like what you see in movies,” O’Neill said of the mass of mangled bone, muscle, and skin tissue left where his legs used to be.

“I didn’t freak out, I did stay calm,” O’Neill said, explaining that he grabbed a rope and made himself a tourniquet. “My coworker said I was very cognitive throughout the whole thing.”

They summoned emergency responders, who helicoptered the victim to a nearby hospital. During the trip, O’Neill “technically died,” he recalled from his hospital bed. “My heart stopped,” he explained. Doctors amputated his legs and “essentially replaced all the blood in my body.”

During the ordeal, O’Neill was certain he would die, but he was inspired to fight through as he thought of his loved ones. “I thought of my mom and my friends and people who look up to me and people who needed me and people who were counting on me and people who have taught me to fight,” he said.

When O’Neill woke up in the hospital after his blood transfusion, he didn’t immediately remember what had happened. After the incident slowly came back to him, he called his mother in New Jersey. Barbara O’Neill was so distraught from the news that she was admitted to the hospital for three days, but during her second conversation with her son she was heartened to see he was “trying to be strong for everyone else.” He told her, “Mom, I’m going to be able to help so many people,” as a result of his accident.

“I think John sort of has a knack of zeroing in on the person in the room that looks a little intimidated, or someone who just looks like they could use someone to talk to. He makes them feel comfortable,” Barbara said of her son’s ability to reach people. “He has a real heart for that.”

O’Neill plans to get prosthetics and continue his work with The Phoenix, a Denver non-profit organization helping those battling addiction and maintaining sobriety. “I feel like this has given me a bigger platform to help people in recovery from drugs and alcohol and help people in recovery from traumatic events,” O’Neill said. “That’s the kind of goals I’m setting for myself to be right back there and I’m not going to listen to anyone who tells me that’s impossible. I’m someone who can do things I’ve never done before."