In An Instant (2015) s01e06 Episode Script
Buried Alive
On a farm, you're always around dangerous things.
What I was doing is by far the most dangerous thing a farmer can do.
Help! Help! I was completely unable to move my legs.
It's like quicksand.
It just sucks you in.
Dad! What is your emergency? I have somebody trapped in a bin of corn.
911, I have a man trapped in a corn bin.
A grain bin accident.
Call about a farmer stuck in a 40-foot silo.
I could just see the rope just moving out of my hands as I was going down.
Once they get sucked underneath the grain it just suffocates them.
You can't breathe, you can't see, you can't move.
The chances of living through anything like this, impossible.
I took my last breath, then it was completely black, pitch black.
Buried alive, there's no sound, there's no light.
It would have to be terror, absolute terror.
Incredible sense of guilt -- It doesn't go away.
There's no way this gentleman is going to be alive.
I had nothing left.
I was ready to die.
They speak of recoveries, which means you recover a dead body -- Never a rescue.
Never a rescue.
In An Instant 1x06 "Buried Alive" The date was June 26, 2013.
It started out just as a normal day.
Woke up between 6:15 and 6:45.
I put my boots on.
I always wear steel-toed boots.
It was really hot that week.
Really, really hot, actually, so I had a cut off T-shirt and just my work shorts on.
I had some leftover chicken strips, so on the way to the grain bin that morning I bought the chicken strips with me, and I was eating them in the car on the way.
I got to the grain bin around maybe 8:30.
Met my dad and Kay, the other truck driver.
I met them both up there, and we were just talking about the day, you know, "Oh, well, and about five more loads.
Hopefully we'll be able to get the door open," and then this whole process becomes a lot less dangerous, because the door is open on the side of the grain bin.
And then we just started loading trucks.
To make money farming, you have to get that grain to the merchant or to a co-op or ethanol plant or whatever, and we do that by loading semis with it, taking the grain from the grain bin and putting it in the semi.
All right, I'll be right back after the co-op.
How we doin'? It was me, my dad, and Kay, and the plan was that my dad and Kay were going to be driving semis because that's what they did the previous two days when we did the exact same thing.
We loaded the first semi, and he was ready to go so he took off for the co-op.
Well, then it was me and my dad there, and you know, it was just another day.
They were hauling it a really long way.
There was about a 45-mile haul to get to the co-op, so I mean they were gone for, oh, I think it was like a two-hour turn to do the whole thing, you know load it, take it, come back.
Typically, if everything works like it's supposed to, you don't ever have to get in a grain bin.
You just open the slide on the bottom of the bin, it comes out the auger on the edge of the bin, you put it in the truck, and it's gone.
The whole grain bin apparatus is something that I don't completely understand, because I'm not a farm person.
But at the bottom of this mound of grain is Archimedes' screw.
You know, they call it an auger, and it's just like a screw that's huge.
So it's like blades.
And they turn it on and it goes like this, and as it does that it pushes the grain out, and then the grain goes into the truck as you push it out.
So many things can go wrong.
What's going on? Too much wet corn this season.
We're gonna have to get in there and break it up.
The unload from the grain bin stopped running.
We had problems with corn just not running out continuously, so there was something wrong.
My job was to go up over the top and try to find what was causing it to stop running out.
You better go get that mask, boy.
Oh, yeah.
I grabbed my helmet, you know, trying just to keep the spores and stuff out of my face, and this has a ventilation system in it, and it doesn't make oxygen -- It just takes oxygen and passes it through this ventilation system.
Hockey rink's that way, Gretzky.
You jealous? You know, growing up on a farm, you're always around dangerous things.
As a little boy, my dad has always told me that a grain bin is one of the most dangerous things.
There's a lot of moving parts.
The grain bin auger, for example, I mean, you get your arm stuck in there, and your arm will be pulled off just from how it works.
And the problem with working in grain bins -- It's a very common task.
I mean, you're always -- I mean, every year, you put grain in the grain bin, and then every year the grain has to come out of the grain bin, so you just become used to doing the exact same thing, and sometimes the conditions aren't the exact same, and that's when you run into problems.
What I was doing specifically that day is by far the most dangerous thing a farmer can do.
On a farm, you're always around dangerous things, and a grain bin is one of the most dangerous.
The unload from the grain bin stopped running, so there was something wrong.
My job that day was to go up over the top of the grain bin, crawl down the ladder inside, and poke for rotten corn.
We were guessing that that's what was wrong.
I was doing that with an eight-foot PVC pipe.
When you step in a grain bin corn moves, and it goes down.
It just goes with gravity, it just flows.
When you're just standing in a grain bin, you're maybe six inches deep.
Like your shoe is six inches deep in the corn, and when you're that deep you can easily just -- I mean, you could probably jump if you wanted to.
Farmers go into their grain bins daily.
You know, it's an occupational hazard.
When we take the grain out to put it in the semi, which is what they were doing, they auger it out of the bottom and they suck all this grain out.
So, Arick jumps in on top, he can walk around up there just fine.
He got in the bin and started poking around.
The grain kind of broke loose, started coming out.
I was on top of the bin looking down in it.
We were trying to be as safe as possible, you know, have someone up in the window watching and just lookin' down into the grain bin, you know, watching me do it.
The truck was getting full.
He whistled down that the semi was full.
He left the window then to go shut the auger off.
And when a shelf of moldy corn like that forms in a grain bin, there's an air pocket underneath it.
I'm standing in the grain, and for some reason I thought, you know, I'm just gonna try one last time to poke this rotten corn through.
I went down to shut the auger off and to move the truck ahead for the last time.
I made the rotten shelf of corn collapse.
When that happened I actually fell through the corn.
Dad! Daaad! Dad! Corn was up to my knee, just like that, just instantly.
Dad! I tried movin', and I was completely unable to move my legs.
Dad! Dad! Dad! Daaad! Daaad! While I was going down I screamed for my dad.
Daaad! Dad! Dad! Help! Help! At this time, I'm over waist deep.
I had a rope on my shoulder.
But the rope is basically just to help me get up -- Get back to the ladder.
Help! Aaaah! I went, I turned and just grabbed that rope And while I was grabbing the rope I could just see the rope just moving out of my hands, 'cause I was going down.
Dad! Help! I was going down and my hands are up in the air like this, and I had enough time to look around me, and 360 degrees around me there was corn.
It was going down.
And my body was going down with it.
And the only way to make it stop was to shut the auger off.
I took my last breath.
Then it was completely black.
Pitch black.
Um Black, I mean just Very black.
I stopped, looked up at the top of the bin, and he didn't surface, and I thought he's probably doing a little knocking some corn down.
I consciously thought that there's no way he can get in trouble because the corn is not deep enough.
And then I headed to the elevator.
Rick left in the truck to go sell this grain.
I'm Arick Baker.
Until about three years ago I was just a college student just trying to find my way in the world.
I live in a really small town called Eldora.
It's about the center of Iowa as you can be.
All we have is two grocery stores, two gas stations.
My graduating class had 50 people in it.
High school had about 210.
It's even smaller now, actually, if you can believe that.
Iowa is the corn state.
Every sign, every billboard that has anything to do with Iowa, if you really look will have a corn stock or an ear of corn, partially open so that you can see the kernels.
Arick has been part of my medical practice since he was born, as have his older sister, younger brother, his mother and his father.
My dad's a farmer, and my mom is actually a teacher at the high school in town.
I'm a high school teacher, so of course there was the expectation that my children will go to college and that they will be successful.
Well, Arick, you know, had announced that he wasn't going back to college.
He just didn't like it, and so one Christmas he came home -- Would've been Christmas sophomore year -- He said "Mom, I'm done.
" It was my daughter who actually said, "I think he should try farming.
" Her reasons made perfect sense.
She said, "You know, he sets his own schedule.
No one tells him what to do.
He doesn't have to meet anyone else's expectations, and he's responsible for his own mistakes," which is exactly who Arick is.
Did you get enough to eat? So we suggested to him -- "Maybe you should come back and farm.
" Ironically though, he was raised, obviously all of his life, by a farmer.
He had really spent very little time on the farm growing up, 'cause he'd had no intention of going into farming.
I didn't really care what he did.
I just wanted him to be happy.
I never wanted to push my occupation on any of the children.
I wanted him to find something that was his love of his life, like I had, and live his life.
They farm a lot of land.
I can't imagine that Rick wasn't delighted when his son wanted to farm with him.
That hardly ever happens anymore.
The father-son family farms have just gone by the wayside.
I'm more of an instant-return sort of person, like an instant gratification, and farming provides that.
You know, after four hours of work, you can visually see in the field that you know you've done that much of work.
He didn't have a clue that anything was about to happen to him nor what the outcome would be.
Help! Help! Oh, God! I, uh, took my last breath.
Help! Then it was completely black.
Pitch black.
I stopped, looked up at the top of the bin, and he didn't surface, and I thought, he's probably doing a little knocking some corn down.
I consciously thought that there's no way he can get in trouble because the corn is not deep enough.
You've reached Arick Baker.
Leave a message.
Arick, it's Dad.
Like a jackass, I forgot to check on you before I drove away.
Give me a call, would ya? Rick left in the truck to go sell this grain.
That whole hour driving over there, I just kept getting More and more tense because it -- I could sense that he was in trouble.
So I started calling, and he didn't answer, and he almost always answers, so I got concerned.
I started calling frequently, and still no answer.
Pick up the damn phone.
It's Rick.
Are you almost back to the grain bins? I can't get ahold of Arick.
Whatever you do, don't turn on that auger until you know where he is.
I had another gentleman named Kay Palmer helping us.
I had called him on the phone and said, "Do not start that auger until you find Arick.
" Arick! Arick! Hey, Arick, you there?! Either you got to go up in the bin and see where the rope is at, or find the helmet that he was wearing.
It's not there.
There's no mask.
Then get back up in that bin and look again! He's decided to farm with his father, and the first thing that happens, or one of the first things that happens, is that he falls in the grain bin.
When something like this happens, it just never ends well.
Arick! Arick! Arick! They speak of "Recoveries," which means you recover a dead body -- Never a rescue.
Never a rescue.
I was in a line over there.
I had to wait about 45 minutes to get unloaded.
And then finally he called me back.
At that time my phone went dead.
I knew I had to do something, so I went back to the truck behind me and asked him if I could borrow his phone.
I'm trying to reach my kid.
My phone went dead.
Can I -- thanks.
And he was super.
I never even got his name, but he was fantastic.
He just let me have his phone, and then I called Kay.
I pulled the rope, and it came loose! He's in there.
He was holding that rope! And then I hit the panic button.
911, what is the location of your emergency? I-I don't know for sure, but I might have somebody trapped in a bin of corn.
He had a mask on, and his pickup is still there, and we can't find the mask, and we can't find him, and the rope that he had tied to him is down in the corn.
I'm going to get a deputy going in that direction.
Well, he's in this enormous semi.
You can't just turn around in line of other semis unloading this grain, so he's trapped in that.
I don't know why when I pulled up there and there was a line that I just didn't unhook the trailer in the parking lot and go back.
You know, I'm guessing it was somewhat of a shock.
Probably ten minutes elapsed, I called her back, and by now I'm panicking because I can just sense that something is not right.
And I said, "Have you sent anybody towards that bin yet?" And she said, "Yes, we've dispatched the local rescue and fire departments.
" And I said, "Okay, well, he's in the bin, and I can just sense that he's in trouble, and we gotta get him out," is what I kept saying.
Um I hung up and I unloaded my truck And right when I got done unloading the truck a sheriff's deputy had called me And asked me where I was at.
I said, "It doesn't matter.
Get the kid out of the bin.
" And he just was very specific.
He wanted to know exactly where I was at and what I was doing, and I said, you know, "I'm fine.
Don't worry about me.
" Finally, I totally lost it And swore at him and told him that "I know the kid is in there.
Get that bin cut open, and get that corn out of there.
" Help! I have a possible -- There is a man trapped in a corn bin.
At first it was a lot of panic.
I mean, when I was in there I was panicking, and I was thrashing, and I was I mean, it was -- it was panic, is what it was.
And then, after maybe five minutes, I guess, is when I stopped panicking, and I don't know how I did, I don't know why I did, but I did.
I'm alive.
I'm alive.
At some point, I just remember talking to myself and being like, "Hey, I'm alive.
" And I started noticing that the more I tried to move the tighter the corn came in around me.
And there was absolutely no way I was going to get myself out of here.
The only way I was going to be able to get out of here alive was to make sure I was alive when the rescue crew got there.
So, I quit moving.
I quit panicking.
I came up with a plan that I was just gonna be completely still, and all I had to do was breathe.
I mean, that's all I could do.
So, when I was in there I had a pretty good understanding of time.
I knew the semi, you know, I knew their schedules.
I knew how long it took them to go and how long it took them to come back, and I mean, I knew they were coming back.
Kay left about two hours ago.
Should be back in an hour.
Okay, I just -- I just have to hold on.
I just have to hold on.
However, the thought that kept haunting me was, the second that first semi truck driver gets back he's gonna start the auger for the grain bin.
And I knew that'd be game over for me.
I knew where I was at in the bin for the most part, and I knew it wouldn't have ended well.
I just didn't let myself think about that.
I mean, it was there, it was in the back of my mind, but it was just, I had no control over it, so why waste my effort thinking about it? Come on.
The sense of helplessness was unbearable.
I mean, I was completely helpless for my own life.
Arick! Arick! I felt a tug on the rope that was around my shoulder still.
The first truck driver that got back there, my dad luckily called him on his way back and said, you know, "I haven't heard from Arick.
" He crawled to the top of the grain bin.
When he got to the top the rope was going straight down in the corn.
Arick! So he tried to pull me out.
He got the rope from my shoulder, because this arm was like this, he got it down to my shoulder, down to about my wrist, but I was wearing leather gloves, so it got caught on my wrist.
Come on, Arick! Come on! He gave it one last tug, and it actually pulled off of my wrist.
And when that happened, my first thought was, I lost my hand, because it gave me a hell of a rope burn and it hurt.
And then the next thought I had was, well, now they know I'm in here.
When we arrived on scene we saw large grain bins.
These grain bins, I mean, were huge.
40, 50 feet tall.
How long has he been down there? Uh, an hour, maybe two -- I-i don't know.
Okay.
At that point, I was calling for backup resources, other fire departments to send manpower to help with the rescue.
Farm-related incident.
Subject submerged in a grain bin.
Commencing Commencing recovery.
I went and got groceries and went home and started cooking.
I had run the lake, so I have all my running gear on, and it's June and I'm sweaty, and I have the iPod clipped in.
Every burner is going, and my cellphone rings, and my hands are wet or they have flour on them or something, and I look over at the cellphone, and I don't know the number, and so I don't answer it.
Immediately afterward the home phone started to ring, and that means that whoever was trying to call me knows me.
That's kind of the sign.
You know, if we don't answer one phone, call the other one right away.
It was my husband who shared the most convoluted phone call ever.
Hello? Arick didn't come out.
We can't find his mask.
His mask isn't there.
I don't understand what you're asking about the mask.
Arick didn't come out! I didn't see him.
I didn't see him.
Get to the grain bins now.
I don't know if it was the urgency in his voice that made me just drop, but clearly, clearly I knew something was wrong because why else would I be on the floor getting up to hang up the phone? I jumped in the car and started driving towards this grain bin, which is 20, 25 miles away.
Come on, God, please.
I don't remember a lot of the drive.
I remember if I exhaled I cried, so I tried to hold my breath.
And, you know, driving holding my breath, and then I would of course have to breathe, at which point I would just start sobbing, and so I would stop.
I was texting and driving.
Texting Arick, texting Arick, because sometimes he will answer my texts when he won't answer his dad's.
I remember when I came to the first stop sign, which is about five miles from our house, I glanced down at the speedometer and thought, at 125 miles an hour, I wonder how soon I need to apply the brakes to make that stop sign.
If a police comes along and the sirens go on, I wonder if it would be more expedient for me to stop and then have him lead me in, or if it would be more time efficient for me to just keep going and let him follow me, obviously, with the sirens going.
Come on.
Call back, Arick.
Just call back.
I remember telling myself over and over and over and over that's he's just gone someplace for lunch.
He had a friend at the time, and his name is Matthew.
He and Matthew probably ran to McDonald's.
He and Matthew probably went to lunch.
I just know he and Matthew, and boy, is Rick gonna be mad when he gets back and finds out he was this worried, and they had just run to McDonald's and he didn't tell anyone.
All I could think to myself was, "For God sakes, let a patrolman stop me," 'cause I was going as fast as the truck would go.
Hang in there, Arick.
Hang in there, buddy.
It's gonna be okay.
All the way back I talked to him the whole time.
Never stopped.
"Just hang in there.
" I just kept saying that.
When we first arrived on scene, from past history and from our training, the mood was, this is a recovery.
We're going to be recovering a body out of that grain.
All right, if we cut some holes here, here, and here, we can drain some of the corn out.
We gotta -- we gotta cut the power to these grain bins here, so go see if you can find a breaker and cut the lock off if you have to.
During our page, they indicated to us that he had been under the corn or gone for over an hour.
Typically, nobody is going to survive that.
Nobody can survive completely buried under grain without air for a few minutes, let alone over an hour.
So when we arrived on scene, we were in "Recovery of a body" mode.
There's been no sign of the subject, but we think he's in this one here, so why don't you guys go up there and see what you can figure out, all right? Come on, we're goin' up.
We have to find the grain bin, we have to figure out how we're going to get the grain out.
We have to do this in a constructive and safe manner and, you know, make sure we have the right location, get down to him, and be able to pull that body out of that grain bin.
Once they get sucked underneath the grain, it just suffocates them within two to four minutes and they're done.
It's like quicksand.
It just sucks you in.
You can't breathe.
You can't see.
You can't move.
He could have suffered from a heart attack, lung collapse, dehydration, heat exhaustion, heat stroke -- All those things could happen almost simultaneously.
But the primary cause of death is just not being able to breathe.
You can't breathe.
You don't get any air.
You don't get any oxygen.
You're dead.
My body was positioned that it looked like I was trying to climb out of the corn until the very last second.
That's how I got frozen.
I mean, this hand was out here, about like this, and my left hand was straight up in the air.
My right leg was pointed down on my Tippy toes, and my left leg was about yay high just trying to step up.
My right foot, the one that was pointed down, was actually on top of the gearbox of the sweep, and the gearbox for the sweep is in the very center of the grain bin.
My dad, if he would have taken another two minutes, another 15 seconds to turn that auger off, that would have been an ugly death.
My leg would have came out of the auger in the semi, and then he would have known and that would have been bad.
It was 137 degrees in the grain bin that day, so it was very, very, warm in there.
My left hand was straight up in the air.
About this much of my hand was out of the corn.
Yeah, about just pretty much my four fingers.
And one thing that I did when I was under the corn is I took this glove off, and that was a very slow process.
I mean, it was one finger at a time, and then I would sit there for 20 minutes and breathe.
I took the glove off so I could have a little ventilation going up out of the corn.
It was a very, very weird victory when I got that glove off.
I was exhausted And I just I had nothing left.
Um, and I just kept breathing.
I was ready to die.
I really was.
I actually tried to hold my breath to make me pass out because I knew if I passed out I wasn't waking back up.
I held my breath three times, and my conversation with God or whatever was, "You know, if I take another breath That means you know either, "A," you're not ready for me or "B," you're not there.
But regardless, if I take another breath, that means I'm living through this.
I wasn't sure the first time, so I tried it two more times, and the end result was the same each time.
So I kept fighting.
I got to the grain site, and I pulled in.
They immediately approached me and start bombarding me with questions.
Where's Arick?! Where is he?! - Whoa ho ho ho! - Lady! Where is he?! Where is he?! - Did you call 911? - No! Is that your son in the bin? I gotta get in there! Arick is gonna be fine.
I just gotta get in there! Where is he?! If you would just wait in Arick's pickup, I'd really appreciate it.
Why can't they just open the doors and let the corn out?! How hard can that be?! And then, one of the men who was in the grain bin -- His name was Mike Reid, he actually lives down the road -- They had heard the radio call.
And he just kind of I don't know, he just kind of took took over and stood with me and, you know, introduced himself and "I know your husband.
" And he was just very calm, and he kept trying to lead me away from the grain bins.
You know, "Why don't we go sit in this pickup.
" When I got in my son's pickup I found some rag he'd been using, there was oil on it.
There was a bunch of bolts in it, I remember, 'cause I dumped the bolts, and I could finally blow my nose.
It was such a relief, 'cause I was just drowning.
I was just drowning.
And just Started to steel myself for the reality That, you know, he was dead.
I started giving myself little pep talks so that when I saw the dead body I wouldn't I wouldn't collapse and make a fool of myself in front of all these people.
I thought You're not special.
That this happens to people And I guess it's your turn.
Picturing him in there, you know, was horrible.
The mother thoughts of, you know, "Is he screaming my name?" You know, was just horrible.
And so, you know, I knew I had to turn off the thoughts.
I had to turn off the thoughts, or I wasn't going to be able to To function.
And so, because I had my running iPod on, put my headphones in, I cranked it up uncomfortably loud, and I just focused on the words of whatever song there was.
Like that it was the only important thing in the world was hearing every single word in that song.
And I sat there with the headphones on with my eyes closed, and I'm rocking to the music, and I remember thinking, oh, my gosh, what must people think? They're pulling in, and the mother's over there rocking out to music while her son is dead in the grain bin.
And I said to myself, you know, "I don't care what they think.
I am surviving here.
They're just gonna have to deal with it.
" I think if we cut two holes, one on either side, and let it drain out and hopefully not crush the guy, at least we get Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey, sir! - Sir! - Get of my way! Wait over there.
- What are you doing? - Wait over there! A local farmer friend of mine seen me running up there, and he come running towards me, and he grabbed me and said, "No, you gotta wait over here.
" And that's where my wife was.
My husband was devastated.
Absolutely devastated.
It's clear that he is about to collapse.
You get hit with an incredible sense of guilt that It doesn't go away.
I just, you know, went towards him, and I just full-body hit him with both arms.
We do not have time for this! You've got to pull it together! I'm sorry.
So I hit him and he goes back, and I told him, "We don't have time for that now! You get a grip.
You can cry later.
" And he just blew his nose, put his handkerchief in his pocket, and we started our vigil.
I was unconscious under the corn, and then all of a sudden I start feeling a breeze, and that's when I realized that someone was in the grain bin.
He could be anywhere.
It's not looking good.
If he's in here, he's dead.
June 26, 2013.
We got a radio page there was a person trapped in a grain bin.
We geared up, which is put on harnesses, hard hats and stuff, and they explained to us which bin we were going to.
Everybody assumed from all the indications that there's no way this gentleman's going to be alive.
Just no way.
I decided that this was real and it's time to call his sister and tell her.
I called her and she was working in Iowa city at the time, and, you know, she answers the phone.
Nicole honey, it's Mom.
Honey, where are you? Just driving.
I need you to pull over.
I need to talk to you.
So you know, you wait and you hear, and she was, "Okay, I'm pulled over now.
" And I go to say, "I think we've lost Arick.
" And I can't say the word "Lost.
" I think that we've lo-- We've loss-- We've -- we've lost I was standing in front of his pickup, and the next thing I know I'm on the ground with this phone, uncontrollably sobbing.
Uncontrollably sobbing like I've never sobbed before.
Just shaking, can't talk, can't tell her.
She's asking questions on the other end of the phone, and I can't answer.
And then she clicks into her little psychology mode, and she goes, "Mom, is there someone there with you?" "Yes.
" "Um, you know, settle down, settle down.
You -- can you talk to me, can you talk to me?" And then she says, "Mom, what color are the bottom of your shoes?" "What?" "The bottom of your shoes.
" Red.
So I look at the bottom of my shoes, like it's the most important thing in the world, and I start describing.
"Well, you know, there's some red, and there's some yellow.
" "Can you tell what time it is, Mom?" Oh.
Yeah, um I want you to sit there and look at that clock, and you don't have to think of anything.
You don't have to be responsible for anything, you don't have to do anything until 2:30.
2:30.
"You don't have to do anything until 2:30, and at 2:30 I will be there.
Can you do that?" I'm like, "Yes, I can do that.
" And I hung up the phone, and then I was fine again.
I was in control and got out of the pickup, and I think I was just waiting, at that point, for her to get there.
I wasn't waiting for him to come out anymore.
I was waiting for her to get there, and that was a different kind of waiting.
The whole time I was in the corn, my phone was going off, and it was in my front left pocket, and I could actually feel the vibrations through the corn because it was so densely packed in there.
Hi.
You've You've reached the voicemail box of Arick Baker.
I can't get to my phone right now.
Ironically, my girlfriend at the time, she sent me a text message that said, "Did you die?" I thought that was pretty -- Pretty ironic.
Weird things kept flashing back to me, like I was in sports in my high school.
I had this one coach.
Him and I did not get along very well, and his biggest thing was, "Don't make excuses.
" And I mean, you know, this is a pretty farfetched example, but you could be hanging there with a bone or something hanging out of your arm, and he'd get in your face and start screaming, "Well, don't make excuses!" And at one point in the grain bin I remember laughing to myself, thinking, you know, I think this excuse would get by him.
I think buried in corn is a pretty good excuse, coach.
Don't you think so? But then there's little things I didn't think about, like I didn't think about my mom.
Didn't even cross my mind, not once.
I don't know why.
I'm guessing because I wanted to be able to handle it.
I think I would have lost The emotional battle.
I had a lot a lot of time to think about death, and it was weird, because there was gonna be no whistle, there was gonna be no gun salute or anything, you know.
I was just gonna die.
And the one that really bothered me was I wasn't gonna know if I was gone if I were to die.
I would have no idea.
After thinking about that, that's when pain became good.
My right foot was was pretty severely crushed, and that's when pain became good.
Pain meant I was alive.
I mean, if I can feel this, that means I'm alive.
I remember thinking -- it might have even been a dream -- That I was either gonna see the light or I wasn't, and the light is the hole at the top of the grain bin.
I mean, there was a little light in the grain bin, and I was either gonna see it again or I wasn't, and And then I got pretty shooken up about that, so I quit thinking about it and went back to just breathing.
We finally got into the grain bin, and we were actually just walking around in the bin looking for any sign of a person or anything that was in there.
They turned on the giant fans.
I could actually feel the fan, the air moving through the corn.
And that's what woke me up.
And then that's when I started being aware of my surroundings and I noticed my hand was buried, that wasn't buried before 'cause I took the glove off.
They were walking around the grain bin, and, uh, corn or grain, I guess, in a grain bin, flows like water, so someone steps on the outside, corn always moves towards the center, 'cause that's the lowest point inside of a grain bin is the center.
So, luckily for me, I was in the very center, so, every time they took a step I got more and more buried.
They walked around the grain bin for about ten minutes before I realized they were there.
Hard to tell.
He could be anywhere.
It's not looking good.
If he's in here He's dead.
When I heard that I started screaming, just as loud and as hard and as much as I could.
I'm here! I'm here! Shh! Shh! You hear that? I'm here! Someone outside yelling? No, no, listen.
Hey! I heard something.
It was a muffled noise, and we got real quiet, and I heard it again.
And it sounded almost similar to a small child or something underneath a pile of blankets.
Listen.
I'm alive! He's right here underneath us! I'm alive! I reached down and reached into the corn as far as I could reach, and a hand grabbed ahold of my hand.
He's alive! We locked fingers.
He's alive! He's alive! He's alive! He's alive! The fear and sheer shock was just unbelievable.
No, I don't think we need any additional resources.
I think we're in a recovery situation.
He's alive! He's alive! Hold on a second.
He's alive! Scratch that! "Holy crap, he's still alive.
" The whole attitude, the drive, the willpower just went up.
I mean, adrenaline rush galore.
They found him.
He's alive.
What?! Oh, my God! After they found my hand, that's when things started happening.
The intensity went from a three or four on a normal recovery call to a 12 off the scale.
We actually started digging like dogs.
We just got down on our hands and knees and just kept digging and digging and digging.
They were just saying the whole time, "Keep talking, keep talking, keep talking.
" So I, uh, started counting.
Three, four Not because I was timing them or anything.
I just didn't have anything else to say at this point.
I was pretty tired, and it was the only thing I could think of to talk about.
The whole time I was just sitting under the corn listening to them dig and dig and dig and dig.
While we were digging him out the grain collapsed again and buried him again, and we just felt so helpless.
At that point in time, you know, I didn't know what to do.
That's when it became real to me that the fight was not over.
He's buried, he's completely buried.
I don't know how deep yet.
I know he's still alive, and what do I do to get him out? The chances of living through anything like is impossible.
We were down inside there digging and scooping actually corn out with our helmets.
Buried alive, there's no sound, there's no light.
The pressure was so immense that he couldn't lift his chest to take a breath of air.
It would have to be terror, absolute terror.
I just could not stop thinking about what a waste it would be if Arick died.
On the outside of the grain bin to drain the grain we had cut four holes total.
We started by cutting one hole in the side of the grain bin so we could start draining the grain away, and then we cut a hole on the opposite side of the grain bin so, as that grain comes down, it pulls equal.
So we can use those and drain the pressure off of the grain bin as the corn is draining out.
I had ten fire departments there.
I had two rescue squads.
I had four ambulance crews.
I had anywhere, estimated, 100 to 120 rescuers all working.
I mean I had people everywhere.
10 to 15 people at every hole in the side of the grain bins scooping corn.
A lot of them didn't even know who they were scooping for, but they were scooping like their lives depended on it.
They were being dragged out of there and given oxygen, not because it was my son but because it was someone.
Here we come.
Yeah, we can see you now.
We hit something with one of the helmets, it was, like, hard, it didn't make any sense.
Maybe it looked like a piece of pipe, I wasn't sure.
We dug a little more and found a white piece of plastic pipe, and we kind of looked at each other and went, "It's a PVC pipe.
Is he breathing out of it?" We realized, we can't touch this.
How's he breathing down there? Maybe this.
Pretty smart.
Careful not to hit this.
My hand like, just slowly, slowly, slowly kept getting uncovered, and then all of a sudden my arm wasn't straight up in the air, and I could put my hand down.
That PVC pipe that I was originally in the grain bin with, um, it was about three inches from my head And I had no idea.
But the firefighters, they thought I was breathing through that, because I had no idea it was there, so after my left arm was free, I just kind of put my hand on top of it, 'cause I thought it was something they were on.
Well, I kept, like, playing with the hole of the PVC pipe 'cause I had nothing else to do, so they thought that's what I was breathing out of.
That was pretty funny to me.
We're coming, Arick.
We're coming.
Once we cut the holes into the four sides of the grain bin and started removing all that grain, it would pile up so high that we had nowhere to push it by hand.
We're not able to move the corn fast enough.
I need -- I need a bulldozer.
I think I saw one on the next farm.
Go over there and fire it up -- now! I sent a fireman over to get that bulldozer and actually use it to move the grain away from the grain bin as we pulled it out the holes in the sides and everything.
Pushing it away in bigger piles and bigger piles -- Just nothing but handwork, you know, cut a hole and start pulling grain and pull corn and pull corn.
It's incredible.
Keep talking to us, pal.
We just knew we had to keep digging, no matter what.
In the meantime, there was people bringing us what they call a grain rescue tube.
Pal, you're doing great.
A rescue tube is a four-to-six-piece tube that actually locks together, and you put it around the victim, and you push that down into the corn to stop the outer corn from pushing in on the victim.
All right, can you tell me which way you're oriented, which way your body is facing? At that point we started asking him where he was, and nothing but his hand was sticking out of the grain.
So, they're like, "Where are your feet?" And just, I went, straight down.
And "Where's your head?" You know, this way.
"Which way are you facing?" This way.
This way, this way, good! We knew what to work with, which was really odd that he was being able to be that helpful with just his finger motions.
We're going to put in a dam now, Arick, okay? Just hold tight.
Talk to me buddy, okay? Keep talking to me.
Then we proceeded to get the tubes around him.
Hold on.
Coming in.
Ow! What -- what happened? You hit my shoulder! All right, Arick, we can do one of two things.
We can either pull up all the pieces of the dam, or you can move your damn shoulder.
Okay.
Ready? Yes.
Go, go, go, go.
Hold on.
We got you.
Hold tight hold tight.
Just relax, here we come.
We weren't working on skills.
It was more just instinct of what to do.
Here we go.
Now anchor him, anchor him, get him in.
All right, Arick, we're coming in.
We're gonna dig you out now, Arick, hold on tight.
We're coming, we're coming.
Just keep the helmets coming.
We're digging in there, and we kept hitting this piece of plastic and didn't understand what it was.
We kept wondering "What is it we're hitting?" We weren't really sure what we were getting into.
Okay, bucket.
Doing good, doing good.
Come on, Jason.
We're digging in there, and we kept hitting this piece of plastic.
Keep it moving.
They hit the helmet that I was wearing.
I remember someone saying like, "What the hell is that thing?" 'Cause they had no idea.
There we go.
We kept dusting it off, and you could see it had a clear plastic face shield.
I had been around farm equipment and farm my whole life, and I'd never heard of such a thing at all.
I'd never seen it.
Never seen anybody ever wear one.
I don't know which one of us said it, but "That's what just saved your life.
" They had gone to some farm exhibition, and they bought this helmet.
It looks ridiculous.
It's like a cheap, little motorcycle helmet with -- with cloth in the back and this little visor that comes down like an alien bug, and then it has a drawstring where they can pull it tight up against their neck.
When he's in that grain bin and the corn gets to flying around, it would get in his eyes, he found that when he wore this mask with the little air fan, it kept his eyes clear and he could see.
Okay, okay, okay.
This must be why he's still alive.
Talk to us, bud.
Let us know you're still with us.
Don't leave me in here.
No way.
We are not going to leave you until we get you on that lifeflight.
There was a glimmer of hope.
Maybe he can live through this? Without that helmet, I would have been dead in the first 60 seconds, guaranteed.
No questions asked at all.
All right.
Good, Arick.
Doing good, you're doing good.
We started digging and digging and got down to where there was these beeping noises, and I didn't understand what the beeping was, and Arick kept trying to say something that the batteries are going dead.
The battery pack on my helmet, it was running out of juice and it was just telling me, you know, low battery.
About that time, that helmet quit beeping.
Your mask's batteries are dead.
We need to get -- No! You need more oxygen! No! He was barely showing his face at that moment.
He did not want me to take that mask off his face.
They wanted me to take my helmet off, and I was pretty persistent with saying "No.
" I mean, that was because it kept me alive until then.
He's not getting enough air.
Arick, how about we feed this oxygen tube under your mask? You can keep your mask, but you get some air.
There you go.
So we took an oxygen tube for rescue breathing and took the mask off and put the tube underneath his chin and let him suck on a tube to get fresh oxygen to his face.
Good.
Okay, all right.
Breathe deep.
All right, Jason, you're out.
No.
Take a break.
Take a break.
All right, Arick, here I come.
Watch your hands.
We'll get you out of here.
We'll get you out of here.
Hold on, buddy.
We'll get you out of here.
Get you out of here.
I remember when they were young, drilling into them, panic kills more people than whatever the incident is.
So, you know, we go to the state fair, you get lost, don't panic, ok? You stand still.
You get a grip, and then you figure out what's the next thing I should do.
I drilled that into all of my children.
I mean, anything we would -- Anything we would try -- Just remember, panic is what's gonna kill you if something goes wrong.
The grain started to move really, really slowly.
You ready to give me that mask yet? No? How about some water? Even for some water? Huh? "Give me the water.
" They finally ended up talking me out of the helmet, and they did that by offering me water, 'cause I was really, really, really thirsty.
Huh? What do you think? Give me that mask.
There you go.
All right, yeah.
Tyler kept feeding me water, And eventually I, uh I grabbed the bottle and I just started drinking it.
Not too much.
And he's like, "If you choke now, I swear to God.
" Keep breathing.
Hey, I can see you.
My names Tyler.
Hi.
I'm Arick.
Arick, good to meet you, bud.
He was not gonna die today, there was just no way.
We were put in this position to save him.
We found a live victim.
He was gonna walk out of that bin that day.
All right, we'll get you out of there.
Hold on.
Hold on.
You're doing good.
One of the main Key components that kept me driving on was my dad.
I knew that if I were to die in that grain bin that he wouldn't have been able to take it.
He -- mental breakdown -- I mean, everything he's worked for would just be gone.
And I just couldn't let that happen.
Um Yeah.
And, uh, I tried so hard To fight to live so I could tell him that it wasn't his fault.
Just, you know, "It wasn't your fault that I was in this grain bin.
It wasn't your fault that I broke, you know, and I went down.
" And then That's -- that's really what kept me going.
I just knew that it wouldn't be a pretty sight if I wasn't alive.
And, yeah, I just had to tell him that, that it wasn't his fault.
Them guys were working themselves sick.
A determination that you can't imagine.
They were dehydrated.
The EMT had set up a tent off to the side there, and they would have to drag them guys off that corn pile to get them to come over and do their vitals.
And I believe there was a few of them they wouldn't let go back, and they pushed them out of the way and went back anyway.
It's something with firefighters, when they volunteer to do this job, they're not gonna leave anybody behind.
You can count on 'em.
You're doing good, Arick.
Hold on, Arick.
We're getting you out.
At that point in time, I don't know how much time it had lapsed.
It was probably another half hour of us digging.
The grain shifted in the bin and started to collapse, that whole tube barrier around it.
What's going on? You're all right.
You're okay.
What's happening? Everything okay? Yeah, yeah, we're good.
And I had to basically use my body as a Jack to hold that apart, because it started out as in a circle, circular pattern around him, it started to crush into an egg shape, and with him in there, there was movement in the bin around us, other firefighters were in the bin, everybody at that moment had to freeze what they were doing because if anybody moved, it caused this whole contraption to collapse.
And it was actually sheer terror at that moment, because he we could not bury Arick, he couldn't withstand being buried again.
He actually put his legs into the side of this tube and sat there for the rest of the time and put pressure against it so it wouldn't collapse, and that's when him and I kind of got joined at the hip in this.
I had my legs stretched all the way out and my back up against the panel.
I just kept pushing for everything I had.
My biggest fear was that my body would actually give out and I couldn't hold that anymore, and if that happened him and or I were dead, and that was not an option, 'cause we could not bury that kid.
I could not let that happen.
What's the hold up out there?! It's clogged.
They've emptied all they can empty.
I didn't know at the time that he had no idea what was going on, but his perspective after he crawled in the tube was the same as mine.
All we can see the whole time is this dam, and we don't have any idea what's going on at all outside of this.
What are they doing? They're clearing out the corn, okay? They're just clearing out the corn.
And then we're gonna get you out of here.
I knew there was people outside working as hard as they could because they had to actually physically drain the bin from the outside by cutting holes in it and letting the corn out.
I didn't know what was going on, but I knew that that's what they were doing outside.
Arick would ask me "What's going on?" And I couldn't really tell him.
I'd just the him they're working, you know, they're -- They're getting us out.
But I didn't have the answers that he wanted.
Hey.
You look tired.
Just resting.
Here's a pillow, huh? He came up with this idea that he was gonna make me a pillow with the corn, just 'cause I looked tired.
How you doing there? You still breathing? Let me get that corn out of your face.
There.
I hate corn.
That's all right.
I don't blame you.
I just kept him focused on me, and I would constantly tell him, "Look at me.
" He would get tired, and he would look down, and I'd make him look at me, and it got to a lot of times he would just just lift an eyebrow.
He would just do something as simple as that, that I knew he was with me.
I just did not want him to close his eyes.
One time he did -- He was so tired he let his hand fall away from mine, 'cause we had kind of a grip on one hand all the time.
We kept squeezing each other's hand, and it scared me, 'cause he went limp.
Arick? Fear went through me.
Arick, Arick, wake up there.
Come on, stick with me, man.
And then all of a sudden, he popped his eyes back open and looked at me, and it just made me push harder 'cause we can't fail.
They actually had to physically empty this bin around us before we could move.
Slowly we could see light.
It was kind of exciting 'cause I knew we were getting close.
And I could tell him, you know, we're getting closer, but he didn't believe me anymore.
I had told him "Five more minutes" so many times that he he didn't believe me anymore.
It was kind of the joke we had between us.
Okay, I'm done with your five minutes.
I think I can pull myself out.
Not even if you were the hulk.
I can do it.
Be my guest.
We finally got down to his chest, which was -- He could move both arms, and he picked both his arms up and was holding on, you know, holding onto the sides of it.
You know, at that point I knew "We got this.
" He's coming out of here.
Okay, here we go.
I'm just tired.
He pulled, but he didn't have the strength, but he wanted to try.
He wanted out of this bin.
And at that point you just start feeling that kind of This is coming to a completion, this is gonna work.
We got this.
Here you go.
Ready? Here we go.
All right, Arick.
Here we go.
Ready? One, two, three, go.
Come on up.
Here we go.
I'll help you with the first leg.
Let's go.
Here we go.
Come on.
You got it.
Arick, now this one.
Ready? One two three.
Come on.
That's it.
That's it.
You're out.
You're free.
You're free.
He popped out and he turned and just grabbed ahold of me, and we were basically almost face to face, and he held on and just squeezed as tight as he could, and we just sat there, and he would not let go of me, and it was this -- the feeling, the emotions at that point in time, he knew he was out and he just held on for everything.
He was just like a newborn child.
He just held there and weeped, and both of us just -- The emotions at that point in time, that we beat this, that, you know, he's out of this bin.
You're free.
You're safe.
I collapsed in Tyler's arms and just started bawling.
Just uncontrollably.
It just -- I mean, all these factors, you know, all my adrenaline, the fact that I was alive.
You know, that all just hit me.
There we go.
Sit down right down there.
The next thing I know, they're like, "There's a stretcher behind you.
Just lay down.
" Nice and easy.
Nice and easy.
There we go.
I got you.
I got you.
There you go.
Good job.
You're doing great.
You're doing great.
Your mom and dad are waiting for you outside.
He's alive.
You know, we did this.
I don't know how.
I mean, against all odds.
This should never have happened, but he walked out of this.
One, two, three -- hup.
He gets to live.
When he come out, it was like new life.
When you find out he's in there it's the worst moment of your life.
When we seen him coming out the door it was probably the greatest moment of my life.
I don't know how you put that in words.
You know, my God, it was just -- Just incredible.
I guess if a newborn knew what it was like to be born, that must be what it felt like, because I was born again.
Yeah.
That there was going to be life again.
Arick! Arick! I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
It's not your fault, Dad.
It's not your fault.
I love you, I love you.
I love you, I love you.
Finally got a chance to get up to his face and told him I was sorry and I loved him.
My dad was behind me kissing my forehead and, you know, he's just all teary eyed and just "Sorry, sorry, sorry.
" And the first thing I said to them was Sorry about all the corn on the ground.
"I apologize for the corn on the ground.
" 'Cause there was a lot of corn on the ground.
And so, I looked at him to make sure he looked okay.
You know, the crushing, the stippling.
He had the imprint -- Deep imprint in various parts of his body of a million trillion pieces of corn on his body.
But he looked like Arick, and so I just kissed his face, probably a million times.
And at this point, I'm fully conscious and alive and feeling pretty good.
All right, guys, lets get him out of here.
I'll be right behind you, honey, okay? I think I knew he was okay -- Really knew he was okay When they grabbed that backboard and they were taking him off, and his hand goes up in the air, and I hear that familiar voice, and he says, "Mother! Bring my cellphone!" And I thought, "He's all right.
" I tried to get up to move and couldn't.
I said, "Just wait.
I just need to sit here and soak all this in.
" I finally got up to the point where, on my own strength, I could stand up.
Walked outside, and it was like walking into a stadium of people.
It was breathtaking.
Everything had to happen exactly how it happened, or he wouldn't have gotten out of there.
He had to have had that rope around his arm, or his hand wouldn't have been up in the air, and they never would have found those fingers.
He had to have been wearing the mask.
He had to have gone straight down, because if the expanse was big enough and he would have gone down on his back, he would have been crushed and wouldn't have been able to breathe at all.
He had to have been wearing steel-toe boots, or he wouldn't have his foot.
He had to have been trained by this horrible mother not to cry and not to panic and that you deal with things first and then you can cry later.
Everything had to happen exactly as it did, or he wouldn't have gotten out.
I don't think I've seen anything closer to a miracle than Arick Baker's rescue from that grain bin.
Arick was in the grain bin for more than four hours.
That's mind-blowing.
Corn is rough and hard and pebbly.
The pressure would have to be unbearable.
He had to be in pain, and he had to be in terrible emotional pain because "What's going to happen to me?" He's a living, breathing miracle.
My heart rate when I arrived at the hospital was 171 beats a minute.
Um, they're guessing the entire time I was submerged it was between 230 and 250 beats a minute.
They consider 265 to be a heart attack, and so I got pretty lucky.
If I would have been five years older I would have had a heart attack.
My heart would have probably exploded just due to the over-exertion, and if I would have been five years younger I probably would have been crushed by the pressure.
Today, he's farming with his father.
He's just the same delightful young man on the outside that he was before this accident.
Life is never the same.
It's never the same.
And it'll never be the same for the Baker family, but it's never the same in a good way.
Life is just unpredictable.
I mean, I'm not religious, but, uh, I mean, if you want to see God laugh, tell him your plan, you know, because there is -- I mean, you know, you have an itinerary and everything and It just doesn't happen like that.
Since that day, Arick's been in contact with me.
We've met a few times.
Every time I see him there's emotions.
Just to see him smile and his whole family to be happy is just unbelievable.
To be able to come out of this and physically look at him and not be able to tell that he was ever buried alive it's just incredible, you know? It's an incredible story.
Everyone still, you know, a year or so later, asked me, how's Arick?" And I tell them, you know he's fine.
And I think they're just shocked.
They can't believe that he's fine.
Every single day from here on out is a gift.
We've already suffered "The worst day of my life," as people like to say.
So every other day is great.
What I was doing is by far the most dangerous thing a farmer can do.
Help! Help! I was completely unable to move my legs.
It's like quicksand.
It just sucks you in.
Dad! What is your emergency? I have somebody trapped in a bin of corn.
911, I have a man trapped in a corn bin.
A grain bin accident.
Call about a farmer stuck in a 40-foot silo.
I could just see the rope just moving out of my hands as I was going down.
Once they get sucked underneath the grain it just suffocates them.
You can't breathe, you can't see, you can't move.
The chances of living through anything like this, impossible.
I took my last breath, then it was completely black, pitch black.
Buried alive, there's no sound, there's no light.
It would have to be terror, absolute terror.
Incredible sense of guilt -- It doesn't go away.
There's no way this gentleman is going to be alive.
I had nothing left.
I was ready to die.
They speak of recoveries, which means you recover a dead body -- Never a rescue.
Never a rescue.
In An Instant 1x06 "Buried Alive" The date was June 26, 2013.
It started out just as a normal day.
Woke up between 6:15 and 6:45.
I put my boots on.
I always wear steel-toed boots.
It was really hot that week.
Really, really hot, actually, so I had a cut off T-shirt and just my work shorts on.
I had some leftover chicken strips, so on the way to the grain bin that morning I bought the chicken strips with me, and I was eating them in the car on the way.
I got to the grain bin around maybe 8:30.
Met my dad and Kay, the other truck driver.
I met them both up there, and we were just talking about the day, you know, "Oh, well, and about five more loads.
Hopefully we'll be able to get the door open," and then this whole process becomes a lot less dangerous, because the door is open on the side of the grain bin.
And then we just started loading trucks.
To make money farming, you have to get that grain to the merchant or to a co-op or ethanol plant or whatever, and we do that by loading semis with it, taking the grain from the grain bin and putting it in the semi.
All right, I'll be right back after the co-op.
How we doin'? It was me, my dad, and Kay, and the plan was that my dad and Kay were going to be driving semis because that's what they did the previous two days when we did the exact same thing.
We loaded the first semi, and he was ready to go so he took off for the co-op.
Well, then it was me and my dad there, and you know, it was just another day.
They were hauling it a really long way.
There was about a 45-mile haul to get to the co-op, so I mean they were gone for, oh, I think it was like a two-hour turn to do the whole thing, you know load it, take it, come back.
Typically, if everything works like it's supposed to, you don't ever have to get in a grain bin.
You just open the slide on the bottom of the bin, it comes out the auger on the edge of the bin, you put it in the truck, and it's gone.
The whole grain bin apparatus is something that I don't completely understand, because I'm not a farm person.
But at the bottom of this mound of grain is Archimedes' screw.
You know, they call it an auger, and it's just like a screw that's huge.
So it's like blades.
And they turn it on and it goes like this, and as it does that it pushes the grain out, and then the grain goes into the truck as you push it out.
So many things can go wrong.
What's going on? Too much wet corn this season.
We're gonna have to get in there and break it up.
The unload from the grain bin stopped running.
We had problems with corn just not running out continuously, so there was something wrong.
My job was to go up over the top and try to find what was causing it to stop running out.
You better go get that mask, boy.
Oh, yeah.
I grabbed my helmet, you know, trying just to keep the spores and stuff out of my face, and this has a ventilation system in it, and it doesn't make oxygen -- It just takes oxygen and passes it through this ventilation system.
Hockey rink's that way, Gretzky.
You jealous? You know, growing up on a farm, you're always around dangerous things.
As a little boy, my dad has always told me that a grain bin is one of the most dangerous things.
There's a lot of moving parts.
The grain bin auger, for example, I mean, you get your arm stuck in there, and your arm will be pulled off just from how it works.
And the problem with working in grain bins -- It's a very common task.
I mean, you're always -- I mean, every year, you put grain in the grain bin, and then every year the grain has to come out of the grain bin, so you just become used to doing the exact same thing, and sometimes the conditions aren't the exact same, and that's when you run into problems.
What I was doing specifically that day is by far the most dangerous thing a farmer can do.
On a farm, you're always around dangerous things, and a grain bin is one of the most dangerous.
The unload from the grain bin stopped running, so there was something wrong.
My job that day was to go up over the top of the grain bin, crawl down the ladder inside, and poke for rotten corn.
We were guessing that that's what was wrong.
I was doing that with an eight-foot PVC pipe.
When you step in a grain bin corn moves, and it goes down.
It just goes with gravity, it just flows.
When you're just standing in a grain bin, you're maybe six inches deep.
Like your shoe is six inches deep in the corn, and when you're that deep you can easily just -- I mean, you could probably jump if you wanted to.
Farmers go into their grain bins daily.
You know, it's an occupational hazard.
When we take the grain out to put it in the semi, which is what they were doing, they auger it out of the bottom and they suck all this grain out.
So, Arick jumps in on top, he can walk around up there just fine.
He got in the bin and started poking around.
The grain kind of broke loose, started coming out.
I was on top of the bin looking down in it.
We were trying to be as safe as possible, you know, have someone up in the window watching and just lookin' down into the grain bin, you know, watching me do it.
The truck was getting full.
He whistled down that the semi was full.
He left the window then to go shut the auger off.
And when a shelf of moldy corn like that forms in a grain bin, there's an air pocket underneath it.
I'm standing in the grain, and for some reason I thought, you know, I'm just gonna try one last time to poke this rotten corn through.
I went down to shut the auger off and to move the truck ahead for the last time.
I made the rotten shelf of corn collapse.
When that happened I actually fell through the corn.
Dad! Daaad! Dad! Corn was up to my knee, just like that, just instantly.
Dad! I tried movin', and I was completely unable to move my legs.
Dad! Dad! Dad! Daaad! Daaad! While I was going down I screamed for my dad.
Daaad! Dad! Dad! Help! Help! At this time, I'm over waist deep.
I had a rope on my shoulder.
But the rope is basically just to help me get up -- Get back to the ladder.
Help! Aaaah! I went, I turned and just grabbed that rope And while I was grabbing the rope I could just see the rope just moving out of my hands, 'cause I was going down.
Dad! Help! I was going down and my hands are up in the air like this, and I had enough time to look around me, and 360 degrees around me there was corn.
It was going down.
And my body was going down with it.
And the only way to make it stop was to shut the auger off.
I took my last breath.
Then it was completely black.
Pitch black.
Um Black, I mean just Very black.
I stopped, looked up at the top of the bin, and he didn't surface, and I thought he's probably doing a little knocking some corn down.
I consciously thought that there's no way he can get in trouble because the corn is not deep enough.
And then I headed to the elevator.
Rick left in the truck to go sell this grain.
I'm Arick Baker.
Until about three years ago I was just a college student just trying to find my way in the world.
I live in a really small town called Eldora.
It's about the center of Iowa as you can be.
All we have is two grocery stores, two gas stations.
My graduating class had 50 people in it.
High school had about 210.
It's even smaller now, actually, if you can believe that.
Iowa is the corn state.
Every sign, every billboard that has anything to do with Iowa, if you really look will have a corn stock or an ear of corn, partially open so that you can see the kernels.
Arick has been part of my medical practice since he was born, as have his older sister, younger brother, his mother and his father.
My dad's a farmer, and my mom is actually a teacher at the high school in town.
I'm a high school teacher, so of course there was the expectation that my children will go to college and that they will be successful.
Well, Arick, you know, had announced that he wasn't going back to college.
He just didn't like it, and so one Christmas he came home -- Would've been Christmas sophomore year -- He said "Mom, I'm done.
" It was my daughter who actually said, "I think he should try farming.
" Her reasons made perfect sense.
She said, "You know, he sets his own schedule.
No one tells him what to do.
He doesn't have to meet anyone else's expectations, and he's responsible for his own mistakes," which is exactly who Arick is.
Did you get enough to eat? So we suggested to him -- "Maybe you should come back and farm.
" Ironically though, he was raised, obviously all of his life, by a farmer.
He had really spent very little time on the farm growing up, 'cause he'd had no intention of going into farming.
I didn't really care what he did.
I just wanted him to be happy.
I never wanted to push my occupation on any of the children.
I wanted him to find something that was his love of his life, like I had, and live his life.
They farm a lot of land.
I can't imagine that Rick wasn't delighted when his son wanted to farm with him.
That hardly ever happens anymore.
The father-son family farms have just gone by the wayside.
I'm more of an instant-return sort of person, like an instant gratification, and farming provides that.
You know, after four hours of work, you can visually see in the field that you know you've done that much of work.
He didn't have a clue that anything was about to happen to him nor what the outcome would be.
Help! Help! Oh, God! I, uh, took my last breath.
Help! Then it was completely black.
Pitch black.
I stopped, looked up at the top of the bin, and he didn't surface, and I thought, he's probably doing a little knocking some corn down.
I consciously thought that there's no way he can get in trouble because the corn is not deep enough.
You've reached Arick Baker.
Leave a message.
Arick, it's Dad.
Like a jackass, I forgot to check on you before I drove away.
Give me a call, would ya? Rick left in the truck to go sell this grain.
That whole hour driving over there, I just kept getting More and more tense because it -- I could sense that he was in trouble.
So I started calling, and he didn't answer, and he almost always answers, so I got concerned.
I started calling frequently, and still no answer.
Pick up the damn phone.
It's Rick.
Are you almost back to the grain bins? I can't get ahold of Arick.
Whatever you do, don't turn on that auger until you know where he is.
I had another gentleman named Kay Palmer helping us.
I had called him on the phone and said, "Do not start that auger until you find Arick.
" Arick! Arick! Hey, Arick, you there?! Either you got to go up in the bin and see where the rope is at, or find the helmet that he was wearing.
It's not there.
There's no mask.
Then get back up in that bin and look again! He's decided to farm with his father, and the first thing that happens, or one of the first things that happens, is that he falls in the grain bin.
When something like this happens, it just never ends well.
Arick! Arick! Arick! They speak of "Recoveries," which means you recover a dead body -- Never a rescue.
Never a rescue.
I was in a line over there.
I had to wait about 45 minutes to get unloaded.
And then finally he called me back.
At that time my phone went dead.
I knew I had to do something, so I went back to the truck behind me and asked him if I could borrow his phone.
I'm trying to reach my kid.
My phone went dead.
Can I -- thanks.
And he was super.
I never even got his name, but he was fantastic.
He just let me have his phone, and then I called Kay.
I pulled the rope, and it came loose! He's in there.
He was holding that rope! And then I hit the panic button.
911, what is the location of your emergency? I-I don't know for sure, but I might have somebody trapped in a bin of corn.
He had a mask on, and his pickup is still there, and we can't find the mask, and we can't find him, and the rope that he had tied to him is down in the corn.
I'm going to get a deputy going in that direction.
Well, he's in this enormous semi.
You can't just turn around in line of other semis unloading this grain, so he's trapped in that.
I don't know why when I pulled up there and there was a line that I just didn't unhook the trailer in the parking lot and go back.
You know, I'm guessing it was somewhat of a shock.
Probably ten minutes elapsed, I called her back, and by now I'm panicking because I can just sense that something is not right.
And I said, "Have you sent anybody towards that bin yet?" And she said, "Yes, we've dispatched the local rescue and fire departments.
" And I said, "Okay, well, he's in the bin, and I can just sense that he's in trouble, and we gotta get him out," is what I kept saying.
Um I hung up and I unloaded my truck And right when I got done unloading the truck a sheriff's deputy had called me And asked me where I was at.
I said, "It doesn't matter.
Get the kid out of the bin.
" And he just was very specific.
He wanted to know exactly where I was at and what I was doing, and I said, you know, "I'm fine.
Don't worry about me.
" Finally, I totally lost it And swore at him and told him that "I know the kid is in there.
Get that bin cut open, and get that corn out of there.
" Help! I have a possible -- There is a man trapped in a corn bin.
At first it was a lot of panic.
I mean, when I was in there I was panicking, and I was thrashing, and I was I mean, it was -- it was panic, is what it was.
And then, after maybe five minutes, I guess, is when I stopped panicking, and I don't know how I did, I don't know why I did, but I did.
I'm alive.
I'm alive.
At some point, I just remember talking to myself and being like, "Hey, I'm alive.
" And I started noticing that the more I tried to move the tighter the corn came in around me.
And there was absolutely no way I was going to get myself out of here.
The only way I was going to be able to get out of here alive was to make sure I was alive when the rescue crew got there.
So, I quit moving.
I quit panicking.
I came up with a plan that I was just gonna be completely still, and all I had to do was breathe.
I mean, that's all I could do.
So, when I was in there I had a pretty good understanding of time.
I knew the semi, you know, I knew their schedules.
I knew how long it took them to go and how long it took them to come back, and I mean, I knew they were coming back.
Kay left about two hours ago.
Should be back in an hour.
Okay, I just -- I just have to hold on.
I just have to hold on.
However, the thought that kept haunting me was, the second that first semi truck driver gets back he's gonna start the auger for the grain bin.
And I knew that'd be game over for me.
I knew where I was at in the bin for the most part, and I knew it wouldn't have ended well.
I just didn't let myself think about that.
I mean, it was there, it was in the back of my mind, but it was just, I had no control over it, so why waste my effort thinking about it? Come on.
The sense of helplessness was unbearable.
I mean, I was completely helpless for my own life.
Arick! Arick! I felt a tug on the rope that was around my shoulder still.
The first truck driver that got back there, my dad luckily called him on his way back and said, you know, "I haven't heard from Arick.
" He crawled to the top of the grain bin.
When he got to the top the rope was going straight down in the corn.
Arick! So he tried to pull me out.
He got the rope from my shoulder, because this arm was like this, he got it down to my shoulder, down to about my wrist, but I was wearing leather gloves, so it got caught on my wrist.
Come on, Arick! Come on! He gave it one last tug, and it actually pulled off of my wrist.
And when that happened, my first thought was, I lost my hand, because it gave me a hell of a rope burn and it hurt.
And then the next thought I had was, well, now they know I'm in here.
When we arrived on scene we saw large grain bins.
These grain bins, I mean, were huge.
40, 50 feet tall.
How long has he been down there? Uh, an hour, maybe two -- I-i don't know.
Okay.
At that point, I was calling for backup resources, other fire departments to send manpower to help with the rescue.
Farm-related incident.
Subject submerged in a grain bin.
Commencing Commencing recovery.
I went and got groceries and went home and started cooking.
I had run the lake, so I have all my running gear on, and it's June and I'm sweaty, and I have the iPod clipped in.
Every burner is going, and my cellphone rings, and my hands are wet or they have flour on them or something, and I look over at the cellphone, and I don't know the number, and so I don't answer it.
Immediately afterward the home phone started to ring, and that means that whoever was trying to call me knows me.
That's kind of the sign.
You know, if we don't answer one phone, call the other one right away.
It was my husband who shared the most convoluted phone call ever.
Hello? Arick didn't come out.
We can't find his mask.
His mask isn't there.
I don't understand what you're asking about the mask.
Arick didn't come out! I didn't see him.
I didn't see him.
Get to the grain bins now.
I don't know if it was the urgency in his voice that made me just drop, but clearly, clearly I knew something was wrong because why else would I be on the floor getting up to hang up the phone? I jumped in the car and started driving towards this grain bin, which is 20, 25 miles away.
Come on, God, please.
I don't remember a lot of the drive.
I remember if I exhaled I cried, so I tried to hold my breath.
And, you know, driving holding my breath, and then I would of course have to breathe, at which point I would just start sobbing, and so I would stop.
I was texting and driving.
Texting Arick, texting Arick, because sometimes he will answer my texts when he won't answer his dad's.
I remember when I came to the first stop sign, which is about five miles from our house, I glanced down at the speedometer and thought, at 125 miles an hour, I wonder how soon I need to apply the brakes to make that stop sign.
If a police comes along and the sirens go on, I wonder if it would be more expedient for me to stop and then have him lead me in, or if it would be more time efficient for me to just keep going and let him follow me, obviously, with the sirens going.
Come on.
Call back, Arick.
Just call back.
I remember telling myself over and over and over and over that's he's just gone someplace for lunch.
He had a friend at the time, and his name is Matthew.
He and Matthew probably ran to McDonald's.
He and Matthew probably went to lunch.
I just know he and Matthew, and boy, is Rick gonna be mad when he gets back and finds out he was this worried, and they had just run to McDonald's and he didn't tell anyone.
All I could think to myself was, "For God sakes, let a patrolman stop me," 'cause I was going as fast as the truck would go.
Hang in there, Arick.
Hang in there, buddy.
It's gonna be okay.
All the way back I talked to him the whole time.
Never stopped.
"Just hang in there.
" I just kept saying that.
When we first arrived on scene, from past history and from our training, the mood was, this is a recovery.
We're going to be recovering a body out of that grain.
All right, if we cut some holes here, here, and here, we can drain some of the corn out.
We gotta -- we gotta cut the power to these grain bins here, so go see if you can find a breaker and cut the lock off if you have to.
During our page, they indicated to us that he had been under the corn or gone for over an hour.
Typically, nobody is going to survive that.
Nobody can survive completely buried under grain without air for a few minutes, let alone over an hour.
So when we arrived on scene, we were in "Recovery of a body" mode.
There's been no sign of the subject, but we think he's in this one here, so why don't you guys go up there and see what you can figure out, all right? Come on, we're goin' up.
We have to find the grain bin, we have to figure out how we're going to get the grain out.
We have to do this in a constructive and safe manner and, you know, make sure we have the right location, get down to him, and be able to pull that body out of that grain bin.
Once they get sucked underneath the grain, it just suffocates them within two to four minutes and they're done.
It's like quicksand.
It just sucks you in.
You can't breathe.
You can't see.
You can't move.
He could have suffered from a heart attack, lung collapse, dehydration, heat exhaustion, heat stroke -- All those things could happen almost simultaneously.
But the primary cause of death is just not being able to breathe.
You can't breathe.
You don't get any air.
You don't get any oxygen.
You're dead.
My body was positioned that it looked like I was trying to climb out of the corn until the very last second.
That's how I got frozen.
I mean, this hand was out here, about like this, and my left hand was straight up in the air.
My right leg was pointed down on my Tippy toes, and my left leg was about yay high just trying to step up.
My right foot, the one that was pointed down, was actually on top of the gearbox of the sweep, and the gearbox for the sweep is in the very center of the grain bin.
My dad, if he would have taken another two minutes, another 15 seconds to turn that auger off, that would have been an ugly death.
My leg would have came out of the auger in the semi, and then he would have known and that would have been bad.
It was 137 degrees in the grain bin that day, so it was very, very, warm in there.
My left hand was straight up in the air.
About this much of my hand was out of the corn.
Yeah, about just pretty much my four fingers.
And one thing that I did when I was under the corn is I took this glove off, and that was a very slow process.
I mean, it was one finger at a time, and then I would sit there for 20 minutes and breathe.
I took the glove off so I could have a little ventilation going up out of the corn.
It was a very, very weird victory when I got that glove off.
I was exhausted And I just I had nothing left.
Um, and I just kept breathing.
I was ready to die.
I really was.
I actually tried to hold my breath to make me pass out because I knew if I passed out I wasn't waking back up.
I held my breath three times, and my conversation with God or whatever was, "You know, if I take another breath That means you know either, "A," you're not ready for me or "B," you're not there.
But regardless, if I take another breath, that means I'm living through this.
I wasn't sure the first time, so I tried it two more times, and the end result was the same each time.
So I kept fighting.
I got to the grain site, and I pulled in.
They immediately approached me and start bombarding me with questions.
Where's Arick?! Where is he?! - Whoa ho ho ho! - Lady! Where is he?! Where is he?! - Did you call 911? - No! Is that your son in the bin? I gotta get in there! Arick is gonna be fine.
I just gotta get in there! Where is he?! If you would just wait in Arick's pickup, I'd really appreciate it.
Why can't they just open the doors and let the corn out?! How hard can that be?! And then, one of the men who was in the grain bin -- His name was Mike Reid, he actually lives down the road -- They had heard the radio call.
And he just kind of I don't know, he just kind of took took over and stood with me and, you know, introduced himself and "I know your husband.
" And he was just very calm, and he kept trying to lead me away from the grain bins.
You know, "Why don't we go sit in this pickup.
" When I got in my son's pickup I found some rag he'd been using, there was oil on it.
There was a bunch of bolts in it, I remember, 'cause I dumped the bolts, and I could finally blow my nose.
It was such a relief, 'cause I was just drowning.
I was just drowning.
And just Started to steel myself for the reality That, you know, he was dead.
I started giving myself little pep talks so that when I saw the dead body I wouldn't I wouldn't collapse and make a fool of myself in front of all these people.
I thought You're not special.
That this happens to people And I guess it's your turn.
Picturing him in there, you know, was horrible.
The mother thoughts of, you know, "Is he screaming my name?" You know, was just horrible.
And so, you know, I knew I had to turn off the thoughts.
I had to turn off the thoughts, or I wasn't going to be able to To function.
And so, because I had my running iPod on, put my headphones in, I cranked it up uncomfortably loud, and I just focused on the words of whatever song there was.
Like that it was the only important thing in the world was hearing every single word in that song.
And I sat there with the headphones on with my eyes closed, and I'm rocking to the music, and I remember thinking, oh, my gosh, what must people think? They're pulling in, and the mother's over there rocking out to music while her son is dead in the grain bin.
And I said to myself, you know, "I don't care what they think.
I am surviving here.
They're just gonna have to deal with it.
" I think if we cut two holes, one on either side, and let it drain out and hopefully not crush the guy, at least we get Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey, sir! - Sir! - Get of my way! Wait over there.
- What are you doing? - Wait over there! A local farmer friend of mine seen me running up there, and he come running towards me, and he grabbed me and said, "No, you gotta wait over here.
" And that's where my wife was.
My husband was devastated.
Absolutely devastated.
It's clear that he is about to collapse.
You get hit with an incredible sense of guilt that It doesn't go away.
I just, you know, went towards him, and I just full-body hit him with both arms.
We do not have time for this! You've got to pull it together! I'm sorry.
So I hit him and he goes back, and I told him, "We don't have time for that now! You get a grip.
You can cry later.
" And he just blew his nose, put his handkerchief in his pocket, and we started our vigil.
I was unconscious under the corn, and then all of a sudden I start feeling a breeze, and that's when I realized that someone was in the grain bin.
He could be anywhere.
It's not looking good.
If he's in here, he's dead.
June 26, 2013.
We got a radio page there was a person trapped in a grain bin.
We geared up, which is put on harnesses, hard hats and stuff, and they explained to us which bin we were going to.
Everybody assumed from all the indications that there's no way this gentleman's going to be alive.
Just no way.
I decided that this was real and it's time to call his sister and tell her.
I called her and she was working in Iowa city at the time, and, you know, she answers the phone.
Nicole honey, it's Mom.
Honey, where are you? Just driving.
I need you to pull over.
I need to talk to you.
So you know, you wait and you hear, and she was, "Okay, I'm pulled over now.
" And I go to say, "I think we've lost Arick.
" And I can't say the word "Lost.
" I think that we've lo-- We've loss-- We've -- we've lost I was standing in front of his pickup, and the next thing I know I'm on the ground with this phone, uncontrollably sobbing.
Uncontrollably sobbing like I've never sobbed before.
Just shaking, can't talk, can't tell her.
She's asking questions on the other end of the phone, and I can't answer.
And then she clicks into her little psychology mode, and she goes, "Mom, is there someone there with you?" "Yes.
" "Um, you know, settle down, settle down.
You -- can you talk to me, can you talk to me?" And then she says, "Mom, what color are the bottom of your shoes?" "What?" "The bottom of your shoes.
" Red.
So I look at the bottom of my shoes, like it's the most important thing in the world, and I start describing.
"Well, you know, there's some red, and there's some yellow.
" "Can you tell what time it is, Mom?" Oh.
Yeah, um I want you to sit there and look at that clock, and you don't have to think of anything.
You don't have to be responsible for anything, you don't have to do anything until 2:30.
2:30.
"You don't have to do anything until 2:30, and at 2:30 I will be there.
Can you do that?" I'm like, "Yes, I can do that.
" And I hung up the phone, and then I was fine again.
I was in control and got out of the pickup, and I think I was just waiting, at that point, for her to get there.
I wasn't waiting for him to come out anymore.
I was waiting for her to get there, and that was a different kind of waiting.
The whole time I was in the corn, my phone was going off, and it was in my front left pocket, and I could actually feel the vibrations through the corn because it was so densely packed in there.
Hi.
You've You've reached the voicemail box of Arick Baker.
I can't get to my phone right now.
Ironically, my girlfriend at the time, she sent me a text message that said, "Did you die?" I thought that was pretty -- Pretty ironic.
Weird things kept flashing back to me, like I was in sports in my high school.
I had this one coach.
Him and I did not get along very well, and his biggest thing was, "Don't make excuses.
" And I mean, you know, this is a pretty farfetched example, but you could be hanging there with a bone or something hanging out of your arm, and he'd get in your face and start screaming, "Well, don't make excuses!" And at one point in the grain bin I remember laughing to myself, thinking, you know, I think this excuse would get by him.
I think buried in corn is a pretty good excuse, coach.
Don't you think so? But then there's little things I didn't think about, like I didn't think about my mom.
Didn't even cross my mind, not once.
I don't know why.
I'm guessing because I wanted to be able to handle it.
I think I would have lost The emotional battle.
I had a lot a lot of time to think about death, and it was weird, because there was gonna be no whistle, there was gonna be no gun salute or anything, you know.
I was just gonna die.
And the one that really bothered me was I wasn't gonna know if I was gone if I were to die.
I would have no idea.
After thinking about that, that's when pain became good.
My right foot was was pretty severely crushed, and that's when pain became good.
Pain meant I was alive.
I mean, if I can feel this, that means I'm alive.
I remember thinking -- it might have even been a dream -- That I was either gonna see the light or I wasn't, and the light is the hole at the top of the grain bin.
I mean, there was a little light in the grain bin, and I was either gonna see it again or I wasn't, and And then I got pretty shooken up about that, so I quit thinking about it and went back to just breathing.
We finally got into the grain bin, and we were actually just walking around in the bin looking for any sign of a person or anything that was in there.
They turned on the giant fans.
I could actually feel the fan, the air moving through the corn.
And that's what woke me up.
And then that's when I started being aware of my surroundings and I noticed my hand was buried, that wasn't buried before 'cause I took the glove off.
They were walking around the grain bin, and, uh, corn or grain, I guess, in a grain bin, flows like water, so someone steps on the outside, corn always moves towards the center, 'cause that's the lowest point inside of a grain bin is the center.
So, luckily for me, I was in the very center, so, every time they took a step I got more and more buried.
They walked around the grain bin for about ten minutes before I realized they were there.
Hard to tell.
He could be anywhere.
It's not looking good.
If he's in here He's dead.
When I heard that I started screaming, just as loud and as hard and as much as I could.
I'm here! I'm here! Shh! Shh! You hear that? I'm here! Someone outside yelling? No, no, listen.
Hey! I heard something.
It was a muffled noise, and we got real quiet, and I heard it again.
And it sounded almost similar to a small child or something underneath a pile of blankets.
Listen.
I'm alive! He's right here underneath us! I'm alive! I reached down and reached into the corn as far as I could reach, and a hand grabbed ahold of my hand.
He's alive! We locked fingers.
He's alive! He's alive! He's alive! He's alive! The fear and sheer shock was just unbelievable.
No, I don't think we need any additional resources.
I think we're in a recovery situation.
He's alive! He's alive! Hold on a second.
He's alive! Scratch that! "Holy crap, he's still alive.
" The whole attitude, the drive, the willpower just went up.
I mean, adrenaline rush galore.
They found him.
He's alive.
What?! Oh, my God! After they found my hand, that's when things started happening.
The intensity went from a three or four on a normal recovery call to a 12 off the scale.
We actually started digging like dogs.
We just got down on our hands and knees and just kept digging and digging and digging.
They were just saying the whole time, "Keep talking, keep talking, keep talking.
" So I, uh, started counting.
Three, four Not because I was timing them or anything.
I just didn't have anything else to say at this point.
I was pretty tired, and it was the only thing I could think of to talk about.
The whole time I was just sitting under the corn listening to them dig and dig and dig and dig.
While we were digging him out the grain collapsed again and buried him again, and we just felt so helpless.
At that point in time, you know, I didn't know what to do.
That's when it became real to me that the fight was not over.
He's buried, he's completely buried.
I don't know how deep yet.
I know he's still alive, and what do I do to get him out? The chances of living through anything like is impossible.
We were down inside there digging and scooping actually corn out with our helmets.
Buried alive, there's no sound, there's no light.
The pressure was so immense that he couldn't lift his chest to take a breath of air.
It would have to be terror, absolute terror.
I just could not stop thinking about what a waste it would be if Arick died.
On the outside of the grain bin to drain the grain we had cut four holes total.
We started by cutting one hole in the side of the grain bin so we could start draining the grain away, and then we cut a hole on the opposite side of the grain bin so, as that grain comes down, it pulls equal.
So we can use those and drain the pressure off of the grain bin as the corn is draining out.
I had ten fire departments there.
I had two rescue squads.
I had four ambulance crews.
I had anywhere, estimated, 100 to 120 rescuers all working.
I mean I had people everywhere.
10 to 15 people at every hole in the side of the grain bins scooping corn.
A lot of them didn't even know who they were scooping for, but they were scooping like their lives depended on it.
They were being dragged out of there and given oxygen, not because it was my son but because it was someone.
Here we come.
Yeah, we can see you now.
We hit something with one of the helmets, it was, like, hard, it didn't make any sense.
Maybe it looked like a piece of pipe, I wasn't sure.
We dug a little more and found a white piece of plastic pipe, and we kind of looked at each other and went, "It's a PVC pipe.
Is he breathing out of it?" We realized, we can't touch this.
How's he breathing down there? Maybe this.
Pretty smart.
Careful not to hit this.
My hand like, just slowly, slowly, slowly kept getting uncovered, and then all of a sudden my arm wasn't straight up in the air, and I could put my hand down.
That PVC pipe that I was originally in the grain bin with, um, it was about three inches from my head And I had no idea.
But the firefighters, they thought I was breathing through that, because I had no idea it was there, so after my left arm was free, I just kind of put my hand on top of it, 'cause I thought it was something they were on.
Well, I kept, like, playing with the hole of the PVC pipe 'cause I had nothing else to do, so they thought that's what I was breathing out of.
That was pretty funny to me.
We're coming, Arick.
We're coming.
Once we cut the holes into the four sides of the grain bin and started removing all that grain, it would pile up so high that we had nowhere to push it by hand.
We're not able to move the corn fast enough.
I need -- I need a bulldozer.
I think I saw one on the next farm.
Go over there and fire it up -- now! I sent a fireman over to get that bulldozer and actually use it to move the grain away from the grain bin as we pulled it out the holes in the sides and everything.
Pushing it away in bigger piles and bigger piles -- Just nothing but handwork, you know, cut a hole and start pulling grain and pull corn and pull corn.
It's incredible.
Keep talking to us, pal.
We just knew we had to keep digging, no matter what.
In the meantime, there was people bringing us what they call a grain rescue tube.
Pal, you're doing great.
A rescue tube is a four-to-six-piece tube that actually locks together, and you put it around the victim, and you push that down into the corn to stop the outer corn from pushing in on the victim.
All right, can you tell me which way you're oriented, which way your body is facing? At that point we started asking him where he was, and nothing but his hand was sticking out of the grain.
So, they're like, "Where are your feet?" And just, I went, straight down.
And "Where's your head?" You know, this way.
"Which way are you facing?" This way.
This way, this way, good! We knew what to work with, which was really odd that he was being able to be that helpful with just his finger motions.
We're going to put in a dam now, Arick, okay? Just hold tight.
Talk to me buddy, okay? Keep talking to me.
Then we proceeded to get the tubes around him.
Hold on.
Coming in.
Ow! What -- what happened? You hit my shoulder! All right, Arick, we can do one of two things.
We can either pull up all the pieces of the dam, or you can move your damn shoulder.
Okay.
Ready? Yes.
Go, go, go, go.
Hold on.
We got you.
Hold tight hold tight.
Just relax, here we come.
We weren't working on skills.
It was more just instinct of what to do.
Here we go.
Now anchor him, anchor him, get him in.
All right, Arick, we're coming in.
We're gonna dig you out now, Arick, hold on tight.
We're coming, we're coming.
Just keep the helmets coming.
We're digging in there, and we kept hitting this piece of plastic and didn't understand what it was.
We kept wondering "What is it we're hitting?" We weren't really sure what we were getting into.
Okay, bucket.
Doing good, doing good.
Come on, Jason.
We're digging in there, and we kept hitting this piece of plastic.
Keep it moving.
They hit the helmet that I was wearing.
I remember someone saying like, "What the hell is that thing?" 'Cause they had no idea.
There we go.
We kept dusting it off, and you could see it had a clear plastic face shield.
I had been around farm equipment and farm my whole life, and I'd never heard of such a thing at all.
I'd never seen it.
Never seen anybody ever wear one.
I don't know which one of us said it, but "That's what just saved your life.
" They had gone to some farm exhibition, and they bought this helmet.
It looks ridiculous.
It's like a cheap, little motorcycle helmet with -- with cloth in the back and this little visor that comes down like an alien bug, and then it has a drawstring where they can pull it tight up against their neck.
When he's in that grain bin and the corn gets to flying around, it would get in his eyes, he found that when he wore this mask with the little air fan, it kept his eyes clear and he could see.
Okay, okay, okay.
This must be why he's still alive.
Talk to us, bud.
Let us know you're still with us.
Don't leave me in here.
No way.
We are not going to leave you until we get you on that lifeflight.
There was a glimmer of hope.
Maybe he can live through this? Without that helmet, I would have been dead in the first 60 seconds, guaranteed.
No questions asked at all.
All right.
Good, Arick.
Doing good, you're doing good.
We started digging and digging and got down to where there was these beeping noises, and I didn't understand what the beeping was, and Arick kept trying to say something that the batteries are going dead.
The battery pack on my helmet, it was running out of juice and it was just telling me, you know, low battery.
About that time, that helmet quit beeping.
Your mask's batteries are dead.
We need to get -- No! You need more oxygen! No! He was barely showing his face at that moment.
He did not want me to take that mask off his face.
They wanted me to take my helmet off, and I was pretty persistent with saying "No.
" I mean, that was because it kept me alive until then.
He's not getting enough air.
Arick, how about we feed this oxygen tube under your mask? You can keep your mask, but you get some air.
There you go.
So we took an oxygen tube for rescue breathing and took the mask off and put the tube underneath his chin and let him suck on a tube to get fresh oxygen to his face.
Good.
Okay, all right.
Breathe deep.
All right, Jason, you're out.
No.
Take a break.
Take a break.
All right, Arick, here I come.
Watch your hands.
We'll get you out of here.
We'll get you out of here.
Hold on, buddy.
We'll get you out of here.
Get you out of here.
I remember when they were young, drilling into them, panic kills more people than whatever the incident is.
So, you know, we go to the state fair, you get lost, don't panic, ok? You stand still.
You get a grip, and then you figure out what's the next thing I should do.
I drilled that into all of my children.
I mean, anything we would -- Anything we would try -- Just remember, panic is what's gonna kill you if something goes wrong.
The grain started to move really, really slowly.
You ready to give me that mask yet? No? How about some water? Even for some water? Huh? "Give me the water.
" They finally ended up talking me out of the helmet, and they did that by offering me water, 'cause I was really, really, really thirsty.
Huh? What do you think? Give me that mask.
There you go.
All right, yeah.
Tyler kept feeding me water, And eventually I, uh I grabbed the bottle and I just started drinking it.
Not too much.
And he's like, "If you choke now, I swear to God.
" Keep breathing.
Hey, I can see you.
My names Tyler.
Hi.
I'm Arick.
Arick, good to meet you, bud.
He was not gonna die today, there was just no way.
We were put in this position to save him.
We found a live victim.
He was gonna walk out of that bin that day.
All right, we'll get you out of there.
Hold on.
Hold on.
You're doing good.
One of the main Key components that kept me driving on was my dad.
I knew that if I were to die in that grain bin that he wouldn't have been able to take it.
He -- mental breakdown -- I mean, everything he's worked for would just be gone.
And I just couldn't let that happen.
Um Yeah.
And, uh, I tried so hard To fight to live so I could tell him that it wasn't his fault.
Just, you know, "It wasn't your fault that I was in this grain bin.
It wasn't your fault that I broke, you know, and I went down.
" And then That's -- that's really what kept me going.
I just knew that it wouldn't be a pretty sight if I wasn't alive.
And, yeah, I just had to tell him that, that it wasn't his fault.
Them guys were working themselves sick.
A determination that you can't imagine.
They were dehydrated.
The EMT had set up a tent off to the side there, and they would have to drag them guys off that corn pile to get them to come over and do their vitals.
And I believe there was a few of them they wouldn't let go back, and they pushed them out of the way and went back anyway.
It's something with firefighters, when they volunteer to do this job, they're not gonna leave anybody behind.
You can count on 'em.
You're doing good, Arick.
Hold on, Arick.
We're getting you out.
At that point in time, I don't know how much time it had lapsed.
It was probably another half hour of us digging.
The grain shifted in the bin and started to collapse, that whole tube barrier around it.
What's going on? You're all right.
You're okay.
What's happening? Everything okay? Yeah, yeah, we're good.
And I had to basically use my body as a Jack to hold that apart, because it started out as in a circle, circular pattern around him, it started to crush into an egg shape, and with him in there, there was movement in the bin around us, other firefighters were in the bin, everybody at that moment had to freeze what they were doing because if anybody moved, it caused this whole contraption to collapse.
And it was actually sheer terror at that moment, because he we could not bury Arick, he couldn't withstand being buried again.
He actually put his legs into the side of this tube and sat there for the rest of the time and put pressure against it so it wouldn't collapse, and that's when him and I kind of got joined at the hip in this.
I had my legs stretched all the way out and my back up against the panel.
I just kept pushing for everything I had.
My biggest fear was that my body would actually give out and I couldn't hold that anymore, and if that happened him and or I were dead, and that was not an option, 'cause we could not bury that kid.
I could not let that happen.
What's the hold up out there?! It's clogged.
They've emptied all they can empty.
I didn't know at the time that he had no idea what was going on, but his perspective after he crawled in the tube was the same as mine.
All we can see the whole time is this dam, and we don't have any idea what's going on at all outside of this.
What are they doing? They're clearing out the corn, okay? They're just clearing out the corn.
And then we're gonna get you out of here.
I knew there was people outside working as hard as they could because they had to actually physically drain the bin from the outside by cutting holes in it and letting the corn out.
I didn't know what was going on, but I knew that that's what they were doing outside.
Arick would ask me "What's going on?" And I couldn't really tell him.
I'd just the him they're working, you know, they're -- They're getting us out.
But I didn't have the answers that he wanted.
Hey.
You look tired.
Just resting.
Here's a pillow, huh? He came up with this idea that he was gonna make me a pillow with the corn, just 'cause I looked tired.
How you doing there? You still breathing? Let me get that corn out of your face.
There.
I hate corn.
That's all right.
I don't blame you.
I just kept him focused on me, and I would constantly tell him, "Look at me.
" He would get tired, and he would look down, and I'd make him look at me, and it got to a lot of times he would just just lift an eyebrow.
He would just do something as simple as that, that I knew he was with me.
I just did not want him to close his eyes.
One time he did -- He was so tired he let his hand fall away from mine, 'cause we had kind of a grip on one hand all the time.
We kept squeezing each other's hand, and it scared me, 'cause he went limp.
Arick? Fear went through me.
Arick, Arick, wake up there.
Come on, stick with me, man.
And then all of a sudden, he popped his eyes back open and looked at me, and it just made me push harder 'cause we can't fail.
They actually had to physically empty this bin around us before we could move.
Slowly we could see light.
It was kind of exciting 'cause I knew we were getting close.
And I could tell him, you know, we're getting closer, but he didn't believe me anymore.
I had told him "Five more minutes" so many times that he he didn't believe me anymore.
It was kind of the joke we had between us.
Okay, I'm done with your five minutes.
I think I can pull myself out.
Not even if you were the hulk.
I can do it.
Be my guest.
We finally got down to his chest, which was -- He could move both arms, and he picked both his arms up and was holding on, you know, holding onto the sides of it.
You know, at that point I knew "We got this.
" He's coming out of here.
Okay, here we go.
I'm just tired.
He pulled, but he didn't have the strength, but he wanted to try.
He wanted out of this bin.
And at that point you just start feeling that kind of This is coming to a completion, this is gonna work.
We got this.
Here you go.
Ready? Here we go.
All right, Arick.
Here we go.
Ready? One, two, three, go.
Come on up.
Here we go.
I'll help you with the first leg.
Let's go.
Here we go.
Come on.
You got it.
Arick, now this one.
Ready? One two three.
Come on.
That's it.
That's it.
You're out.
You're free.
You're free.
He popped out and he turned and just grabbed ahold of me, and we were basically almost face to face, and he held on and just squeezed as tight as he could, and we just sat there, and he would not let go of me, and it was this -- the feeling, the emotions at that point in time, he knew he was out and he just held on for everything.
He was just like a newborn child.
He just held there and weeped, and both of us just -- The emotions at that point in time, that we beat this, that, you know, he's out of this bin.
You're free.
You're safe.
I collapsed in Tyler's arms and just started bawling.
Just uncontrollably.
It just -- I mean, all these factors, you know, all my adrenaline, the fact that I was alive.
You know, that all just hit me.
There we go.
Sit down right down there.
The next thing I know, they're like, "There's a stretcher behind you.
Just lay down.
" Nice and easy.
Nice and easy.
There we go.
I got you.
I got you.
There you go.
Good job.
You're doing great.
You're doing great.
Your mom and dad are waiting for you outside.
He's alive.
You know, we did this.
I don't know how.
I mean, against all odds.
This should never have happened, but he walked out of this.
One, two, three -- hup.
He gets to live.
When he come out, it was like new life.
When you find out he's in there it's the worst moment of your life.
When we seen him coming out the door it was probably the greatest moment of my life.
I don't know how you put that in words.
You know, my God, it was just -- Just incredible.
I guess if a newborn knew what it was like to be born, that must be what it felt like, because I was born again.
Yeah.
That there was going to be life again.
Arick! Arick! I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
It's not your fault, Dad.
It's not your fault.
I love you, I love you.
I love you, I love you.
Finally got a chance to get up to his face and told him I was sorry and I loved him.
My dad was behind me kissing my forehead and, you know, he's just all teary eyed and just "Sorry, sorry, sorry.
" And the first thing I said to them was Sorry about all the corn on the ground.
"I apologize for the corn on the ground.
" 'Cause there was a lot of corn on the ground.
And so, I looked at him to make sure he looked okay.
You know, the crushing, the stippling.
He had the imprint -- Deep imprint in various parts of his body of a million trillion pieces of corn on his body.
But he looked like Arick, and so I just kissed his face, probably a million times.
And at this point, I'm fully conscious and alive and feeling pretty good.
All right, guys, lets get him out of here.
I'll be right behind you, honey, okay? I think I knew he was okay -- Really knew he was okay When they grabbed that backboard and they were taking him off, and his hand goes up in the air, and I hear that familiar voice, and he says, "Mother! Bring my cellphone!" And I thought, "He's all right.
" I tried to get up to move and couldn't.
I said, "Just wait.
I just need to sit here and soak all this in.
" I finally got up to the point where, on my own strength, I could stand up.
Walked outside, and it was like walking into a stadium of people.
It was breathtaking.
Everything had to happen exactly how it happened, or he wouldn't have gotten out of there.
He had to have had that rope around his arm, or his hand wouldn't have been up in the air, and they never would have found those fingers.
He had to have been wearing the mask.
He had to have gone straight down, because if the expanse was big enough and he would have gone down on his back, he would have been crushed and wouldn't have been able to breathe at all.
He had to have been wearing steel-toe boots, or he wouldn't have his foot.
He had to have been trained by this horrible mother not to cry and not to panic and that you deal with things first and then you can cry later.
Everything had to happen exactly as it did, or he wouldn't have gotten out.
I don't think I've seen anything closer to a miracle than Arick Baker's rescue from that grain bin.
Arick was in the grain bin for more than four hours.
That's mind-blowing.
Corn is rough and hard and pebbly.
The pressure would have to be unbearable.
He had to be in pain, and he had to be in terrible emotional pain because "What's going to happen to me?" He's a living, breathing miracle.
My heart rate when I arrived at the hospital was 171 beats a minute.
Um, they're guessing the entire time I was submerged it was between 230 and 250 beats a minute.
They consider 265 to be a heart attack, and so I got pretty lucky.
If I would have been five years older I would have had a heart attack.
My heart would have probably exploded just due to the over-exertion, and if I would have been five years younger I probably would have been crushed by the pressure.
Today, he's farming with his father.
He's just the same delightful young man on the outside that he was before this accident.
Life is never the same.
It's never the same.
And it'll never be the same for the Baker family, but it's never the same in a good way.
Life is just unpredictable.
I mean, I'm not religious, but, uh, I mean, if you want to see God laugh, tell him your plan, you know, because there is -- I mean, you know, you have an itinerary and everything and It just doesn't happen like that.
Since that day, Arick's been in contact with me.
We've met a few times.
Every time I see him there's emotions.
Just to see him smile and his whole family to be happy is just unbelievable.
To be able to come out of this and physically look at him and not be able to tell that he was ever buried alive it's just incredible, you know? It's an incredible story.
Everyone still, you know, a year or so later, asked me, how's Arick?" And I tell them, you know he's fine.
And I think they're just shocked.
They can't believe that he's fine.
Every single day from here on out is a gift.
We've already suffered "The worst day of my life," as people like to say.
So every other day is great.