It’s over 30 years since a bale of hay fell on Wicklow sheep farmer Sean Malone, and still not a day goes by that the incident doesn’t cross his mind.
ean’s life changed forever on April 19, 1989 and he says himself that he is very fortunate to be alive.
“I was 50-51 years of age when the accident happened. At that time, there weren’t hours enough in the day for me. I was working day and night and oftentimes under fatigue,” he says.
On the day of the accident, he was rushing to get fertiliser spread.
“I was behind time with my work,” he recalls. “I had a family member with me, and at my instruction, he got up on bales in the shed to knock one down. They were stacked four high.
“I came back into the shed with the tractor and fertiliser spreader and saw a ewe and two lambs beneath where the bale would fall.
“I shouted at him to stop, but he didn’t hear me with the noise of the tractor. I went to open the pen to move the sheep and the bale of hay came down on top of me.”
He severely injured his hip and ribcage and damaged his neck, but he still maintains he was fortunate.
“Only that there was a small amount of dung in the shed and the ground was soft underneath, I would have probably been killed.
“A neighbour came into the shed the next day and said he could see the imprint of me in the dung,” Sean says, adding that his doctors told him it was a miracle his back wasn’t broken.
Sean’s road to recovery was long and hard.
“I tried to get up after the impact, but I knew there was something seriously wrong — I just couldn’t move on one side. I had to lie there until the ambulance to arrive.
“I had hip surgery and was on crutches for 14 months, but with the damage to the veins, the hip never knit. After 14 months, I was brought back in for a bone graft. I spent three years in agony before I got the artificial hip.
“I then got 13 good years, but in 2009 a dog ran into the back of my leg, and whatever jerk he gave it, I was crippled again. I have had 20 years of doctors and operations, in misery and agony all the time.
“I still have the after-effects of the accident. The hip pains me in frosty weather or if I do too much on it, or even if it’s going to rain I can feel the pain coming. I have to live with it for the rest of my life and it was all my own fault.”
Sean’s advice to all farmers is not to rush jobs on the farm.
“Take your time and think about what you are going to do,” he says. “One split second of thinking about what you’re going to do could save your life or prevent a bad injury.
“I was in such a hurry and fuss to get things done, I couldn’t see any danger.
“It doesn’t take long just to stop and think. There would be a lot of accidents avoided if that happened.”
Sean is concerned about young people involved in farming and fears that they don’t sufficiently consider the dangers involved.
“Young people driving tractors, on silage machinery or at tillage, a lot of them, I think they have quite a bit to learn and are not as careful as they should be,” he says.
Sean, who turned 83 on Sunday and is still “working away full-time”, counts himself one of the lucky ones.
“I could have been killed or been in a wheelchair for life. Every day I get up, I thank God that I am as good as I am.”