NI farmer nearly killed by cow shares safety plea

A young farmer who nearly died after being crushed by a cow has urged anyone working with livestock to think twice before taking unnecessary risks.

Ian Beacom, 24, ruptured his spleen in two places and was rushed into life-saving surgery after his mother made him go to A&E following the accident on the farm in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh.

The farmer was having trouble putting a bolus in a cow, so he jumped into the crush and was pinned against the wall when the animal shot forward.

Ian Beacom © Ian Beacom

See also: Top tips for safe cattle handling to avoid injury

“The cow just took off, pushed straight past me, pushed me up the wall of the crush, twisted me round and gave me a pretty bad squeeze,” Mr Beacom told Farmers Weekly. 

Hospital scans showed internal bleeding and he had lost a lot of blood. “They told me before we went into theatre they didn’t know what organs could be damaged, part of my bowel might be damaged and I could wake up with a bag for a stomach.”

The operation went to plan, but rebleeding in the spleen when he was in intensive care meant the young farmer had to have a second life-saving operation.

“The surgeon said they either had to operate to take my spleen out or go to Belfast to have coils put in but she couldn’t guarantee I would survive the journey.

“I got my spleen removed. It was a slow recovery to start with, but I’m doing well now, back on the farm doing what I love again.”

‘Think twice’

The spleen filters and cleans the blood, so Mr Beacom will have to take antibiotics for the rest of his life in case he gets an infection.

“I feel very lucky and thankful to still be here at all. If Mum hadn’t have been there I would have probably got a couple of painkillers and lay down to try to rest it off.”

The harrowing episode is a stark reminder of the importance of farm safety.

“If I can do anything to help raise awareness – you never really think it is going to happen to you,” Mr Beacom said.

“You would be surprised how many people have come to me since, held their hands up and said: ‘Yeah, I’ve got into the crush with a cow.’ We have all done it.

“A lot of people I know will be thinking twice before they do anything like that again, and taking a step back and thinking about things before they jump in.”

Last week, Farmers Weekly revealed how accidents involving cattle are resulting in injuries as severe as those seen in high-speed car crashes, according to John-Henry Rhind, an orthopaedic surgeon at Royal Stoke University Hospital, Staffordshire.