Pinned!: Farm Accident—Our Walk in Faith

By Kaye Topp and George Topp

George Topp believed in God but often relied on himself when making and carrying out decisions. He was not inclined to ask God for help but May 3, 2004 was the day that he found out he powerless.
That day on his farm near Grace City, North Dakota, started out like any other. He had a half-dozen cows left to calf, and he was also seeding barley. Everything was going fine until his truck would not start.
He had the bright idea to pull the truck with his small loader tractor and a chain to get it started. While the idea itself was sound, it was a bad call trying to do it himself without having someone drive the truck.
The bumper of the truck ended up landing on the top of his legs, and he was immediately pinned. Before long, he began writing goodbyes to his wife and his family on his calving notepad.
But miraculously, God intervened and saved George Topp’s life, not only rescuing him but also healing his wounds and restoring him to wholeness in Jesus Christ.
George and his wife, Kaye, share the incredible love of Jesus and the unbelievable grace of God in this true story that will ignite your faith and convince you of God’s love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781973688181

Kaye Topp

George and Kaye Topp are lifelong North Dakota farmers. Following their graduation from Grace City High School, George completed two courses at North Dakota Agricultural College and Kaye earned a degree in elementary education from Valley City State College. They were married in 1968 and raised four children. George retired from grain farming in 2010, and Kaye retired from teaching the same year. In 2018, they celebrated fifty years of marriage. They have twelve grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2020 George and Kaye Topp.

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Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®

Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible (‘the KJV’), the rights in which are vested in the Crown in the United Kingdom, is reproduced here by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-8048-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8818-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020904765

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/10/2020

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Over the course of my 36 year career in Rehabilitation Medicine I have cared for many hundreds of trauma victims. George’s injury was however a very unique one. I’m not sure that his event could be replicated if you tried. This memoir chronicles a journey that is a testament to the strength of the human spirit when supported by faith, family, and friends. His recovery course was quite remarkable and in no small part related to his can do attitude reinforced by his faith, that continued to grow throughout the process. The road to recovery was not always smooth and George experienced some of the emotional healing that often needs to occur with the physical healing in these events. As I often related to many of our patients We will make the most of what we have today and hope for a better tomorrow. George clearly did just that. With his life partner Kaye by his side and strength from above he made the most of every tomorrow. My wife has a plaque on a desk in our home that I look at each morning, it states, Faith makes all things possible. That was clearly the case for George.

William N Klava M.D.

To our grandchildren, Ryan, Kyle, Justin, Ethan, Paige, Garrett, Cora, Calli, Cailyn, Jaden, Gavin, and Tegan, Whom we love so dearly. And to my wife, I love you, I love you, I love you. I haven’t said it nearly enough. And to our son, Corey, and his wife, Rhonda; our daughters, Andrea, Karen, and Elizabeth (Liz), and their husbands, Marlen, Tad, and Craig.

You are all such a blessing to us.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Independent Farmer

The Truck

The Wounds

Rehabilitation

Healing at Home

Closing

Miracles

Blessings

Resources

Bibliography

Appendix 1-11: Kaye’s Journal

Appendix 12: Kyle Topp Interview

Appendix 13: Photos of Open Wounds

Glossary

About the Authors

George wrote his story in January 2005 and shared it when giving his testimony to a number of groups. Transcriptions are from his audio journal, taped while he was in rehabilitation in June 2004. CaringBridge entries were written by Elizabeth, daughter, and Kaye. Kaye’s entries, doctor reports and consultations, and medical information were taken from Kaye’s journal.

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Acknowledgments

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Thank you to the doctors, nurses, and support staff at the Carrington Hospital and MeritCare for the excellent care given to me. Thank you, Liz, for writing accounts in CaringBridge. I was thankful for all the prayers and messages. There were more than eight thousand hits on the website during my hospital stay, and we continued to use it until the end of the summer. Thank you to Bev and Dave for giving Kaye the comfort of your home, and to Dave for your expert doctor’s advice in delaying surgery to close my wounds. The discussions that took place resulted in a change of course and no skin grafts. To Muriel, who one day at the hospital said, What a story. You should write a book. To a special nurse, Julie, who touched my heart with her story, and I touched her heart with mine. Thank you, Julie, for the inspirational painting. Thank you to our pastors and our neighbors and friends (our good community), who farmed, ranched, and did so many other things to help us while we were both away from the farm and during my recovery at home.

Kaye worked as a Title 1 teacher at Midkota Public School. We were grateful that Kerwin Borgen, superintendent, and Jeanne Hoyt, elementary principal, allowed Kaye to remain with George until the end of the school year and so appreciated Glenda Hoeckle, kindergarten and Title 1 teacher, who completed Title 1 year-end work. In grades seven through twelve, the kids often asked how George was doing. When it was a good report, they would show thumbs-up as they went down the hall, said Diane Lyman, the Midkota office manager.

Thank you to family and friends who helped edit our book and to all who have supported our efforts with love and prayers. The desire of our hearts is to bring glory to God and to know that He is pleased. We believe David’s words in Psalm 62:11–12a (NIV), One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: ‘Power belongs to you, God, and with you, Lord, is unfailing love.’

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Introduction: The Independent Farmer

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My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were farmers, so you might say I was born into it. I could work in the great outdoors and watch nature all around me. I was my own boss and didn’t have to punch a clock. As a farmer, I could be envied because I was seen as living a more tranquil life and appeared to be more carefree because I had very few people to answer to other than myself.

This rugged individualism was good, but it was also harmful when I allowed pride and lack of humility to affect my relationship with other people, and more importantly with God. At times, I could easily think, I don’t need God or anyone else. I can do it myself.

This is a story about how God got my attention. It’s about His goodness, mercy, and healing during and following my near-fatal accident. Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV) says, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I sought Him with all of my being, and He reached out His hand and rescued me.

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The Truck

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T he headline of the March 2005 issue of Dakota Farmer says, Six die on DK [Dakota] farms in 2004.

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Well, I could have been number seven, except for the grace of God. My accident happened on May 3, 2004, at our farm near Grace City, North Dakota. It started out as a typical spring day. I had about a half dozen cows left to calf, and I was busy finishing up seeding barley. My wife, Kaye, and I were small grain farmers and raised beef cattle in the east central part of the state. We grew wheat, barley, and oats and had a herd of stock cows, which calved out in the spring. We pastured the cows and calves in the warm months, fed them hay and oats in the winter, and sold the calves in January.

Right from the start, I’m going to tell you I’m half-German and half-Norwegian and a very independent farmer. In other words, I depended on myself to get things done. It wasn’t always that way. I grew up farming with my dad, Ervin, and then took over the farm from Dad as a young adult. Dad continued to work with me until his death, when I was forty years old. Our son, Corey, farmed with me until he graduated from college and moved to Minneapolis. Kaye and our daughters helped when they could, but gradually, I had more work to do than I had time.

As my own boss, I answered to no one. I didn’t have to ask anyone else things like, "Will this work or do you think this …? I was willingly to take advice from others but was in the habit of going ahead on my own and getting the job done as best I could without stopping to ask for help. Many times, we farmers have the attitude of I can do it myself." I was about to find out how that way of thinking would get me into very serious trouble.

On that first Monday morning in early May, I checked the cows that were calving and was heading out of the farmyard to seed barley in a field near Lester Wright’s old farm, which is about a mile north of the farm. I had been having some problems starting our 1967 International two-ton, single-axle truck. The truck was used to transfer seed and fertilizer to the grain drill (seeder) in the field. It was new when Dad (Ervin) bought it, but after many years of use, like all machinery, it had parts that were wearing out. I had removed the truck box and put the drill fill on back because the flatbed was the right size to hold the two hoppers. The drill fill, fertilizer, and grain added about four tons of weight to the truck.

I managed to get the truck going, drove out to the field, filled the seeder, and began planting barley. About noon, I jumped in the truck, sat down into the seat’s hole that extended to the springs below,