An Illinois father is facing a long recovery after a terrifying fall from a ladder left him impaled by a steel rod that pierced his chest and exited through his neck. His family says he is expected to need months to heal.
On Sunday, Nov. 16, first responders were called to Carter Road in Coulterville after reports that a man had fallen from a ladder and landed on a steel rod, which became lodged in his neck, according to a news alert from Southern Illinois Fire Incidents.
Tammy Davis told ABC affiliate WFAA that her husband of 22 years, John Davis, was the injured man. The couple had been in their barn collecting tin for a house project when the ground beneath the ladder began to shift, causing John to lose his footing and fall.
“I saw him fall,” Tammy told the outlet. “I went over to try and pick him up and he was like, ‘It’s in me.’ I wasn’t understanding and I got a look at his face and I could see the thing bulging through his neck.”
A GoFundMe fundraiser created to help with medical costs states that the rod entered John’s right side beneath his shoulder and came out through the left side of his neck. The post, written by his stepdaughter Christine James, says he broke seven ribs, suffered internal injuries, and punctured a lung.
When emergency crews arrived, they cut him free from the pole. He was airlifted to a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, where he underwent emergency surgery, James wrote.
“It’s just a miracle from God,” James, an ER nurse, told WFAA. “It missed his spinal cord, it missed his heart, his major vessels. It missed everything besides the ribs and the lung.”
In an update on the fundraiser posted Tuesday, Nov. 18, James said John developed pneumonia and an acute kidney injury during his hospital stay. He was placed back on oxygen and will need a chest tube for longer than doctors originally expected. Still, the 45-year-old has made progress, including bathing and working with a physical therapist to walk and sit up in a chair, she wrote.
James described her parents as hardworking, humble people who aren’t used to asking for help. But she said the costs of medical care, the helicopter transport, and related expenses are already overwhelming, especially since both Tammy and John are currently unable to work.
“We are unbelievably grateful that he is still with us,” she wrote, “but the road ahead is going to be tough — physically, emotionally and financially.”
Despite the trauma, Tammy has shared hopeful updates. Commenting on the Southern Illinois Fire Incidents post, she said John survived with no major damage beyond his injured lung.
“He is heavily drugged but still cracking his jokes,” she wrote on Nov. 16. “God is good.”
