SPEAKER_06 0:00

Here comes a sand do. Here comes a son that say it's all right.

SPEAKER_05 0:19

Hello, fortitude audience. Thank you so much for joining us again today. My name is Heather Kittelson, and I am here with my husband Amos.

SPEAKER_06 0:27

Hi.

SPEAKER_05 0:28

And today in our studio, we have Shelly and Liddell Kellenberger. Hello, and thank you for being here today. Hello. We have had the opportunity to get to know each other, Shelly, through Rosie's Boutique in Rock Rapids, Iowa. And I have just, I've always loved you a lot. You are full of joy and full of the Holy Spirit. And coming in to grab coffee with my girls at the boutique, it's just been when I was doing the woodworking and dropping off boxes and boxes of woodworking. Woodwork, yeah.

unknown 1:01

Woodwork.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

I loved doing that. It was a fun, it was a fun season. So we have recently, or I should say you guys recently, about three years ago, went through a very unique um situation. I think you guys call it, it's an accident. Um, but it has changed your life in such a beautiful way and cherishing life. Um, but I want to start with who you are today. So if you could just share with our audience, either one of you, you guys can just look at each other and give each other just like the you go ahead. Like, who are you? And you have kids and grandkids and all the good stuff. So just share with the audience who you are.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Well, I think um we're a typical Northwest Iowa family, I think, or pretty boring once in a while. Um, we're not, you know, we're not that couple that goes out and does a whole lot of stuff that gets crazy, but boring in in this case is not a derogatory term, right?

SPEAKER_06 2:02

No.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Simply beautiful. It can be just five.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

But like I said, we we have five five beautiful children. Um I guess we can say that we we have two families in a way because we have two two biologic or three biological, but we did adopt two beautiful girls from China. So um and we are going to be empty nesters after this year a little bit because our last one's a senior.

SPEAKER_05 2:31

Yes, Shelly, you are no longer going to be a boring couple. You will be party in. I can see it.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

In a way, because of my age, mostly, because I'm uh seven years older. Um, so I am I am almost that retirement or can be a retirement age, but I think my worth that ethic is um it's gonna be tough to retire sooner than later, but but I hope to stay busy if um I do stop totally.

SPEAKER_05 3:02

But that's what I love about the Northwest, just this whole Midwest area. I don't know that retiring is a thing. Everyone stays active and hard, hard work. There's hard work that happens all the way until God takes you home. So how what I feel like. Exactly. Shelly, you I I mentioned Rosie's boutique. How long have you been there? Okay, so you are maybe taking a sabbat, or you're doing something different. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 3:29

That was something.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

No, that's fine. I've met Rosie's for nine years. Um I was done last November. Um, so now I'm at home taking care of my grandson three days a week.

unknown 3:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

And I'm helping a little bit with Game Plan for Hope. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

So that's kind of so for those who are listening, she was being polite and saying, I'm no longer there.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

She caught me off guard a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

So Baba's gotta just getting caught up here.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

So little more research.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

That's no, I we're gonna promote these past tense. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 4:07

Um, but that was a long time. That was a long time to be there. But now you get to be grandma. Yes, now we get to be grandma. And game plan for hope, we have talked about quite a bit on our podcast because it's an incredible nonprofit that is near and dear to our heart.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

So And us too. Because they we'll get through the story, but they did a lot for us when Lidal had his accident.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

So it's yeah, that's nice. And I noticed your reaction when you said empty nesters, which to me, which was very positive. Because you hear a lot of people go, Oh, yeah, we're gonna miss the kids. And you know, there's kind of a like a like a sorrowful moment. But you were very joyful. Yeah, which is a testimony to your guys' relationship because you're really looking forward to what's just to what's next.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

I think once you raise your kids and hopefully they they fly after they leave the nest. Exactly. You did your job. That can give you a lot of people. We didn't do it very well, but we I guess we tried. And through God's divine intervention, we made it. You made it. We almost made it.

SPEAKER_05 5:14

Whose idea beyond was it to adopt? I mean, I'm sure God put the plug in the heart. Oh, Shelly's getting pointed at. Okay, so two from China. Yeah. That how was that process?

SPEAKER_03 5:26

It was it was long. Yeah. I mean, I I shouldn't say it was really long. It's from start to finish, it was 13 months.

SPEAKER_05 5:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

But it was a long time trying to get him on board.

SPEAKER_05 5:36

How old were they when they were born?

SPEAKER_03 5:38

Mia was 22 months. How old were they when they when they were born? I mean, when when we adopted. Yes. She was 22 months and Zoe was three and a half.

SPEAKER_05 5:47

Okay. Man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Three and a half years.

SPEAKER_05 5:50

And siblings or no. Okay. Two different parts of China.

unknown 5:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 5:54

That so she not only convinced you once, but she convinced you twice.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

They always told us when you went that you'll be back again.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

We were in the, you know, the group of the agency. There's there was at least 15, maybe, you know, other couples at the same time trying, you know, to get them out of China. Yeah. Do all them hoops of paperwork and getting here and here. And and you know, so you got to be with a lot of them. And um, and the every one of them, a few of them were second timers and stuff. So they pretty much said you'll be back.

SPEAKER_05 6:28

You'll be back. It's like if you've done it once, we could do it again.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:32

We can't do all that work just one time. One time. So that's a whole nother podcast. Yes, it is. Because we have I don't think we've really covered it yet, adoption. Um, so we we do have we have a few coming up that I'm really excited about because that's a beautiful process. Um Liddell, you are the young uh youngest of twelve. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Yep, that is correct. I am the youngest of twelve.

SPEAKER_05 6:57

That is the also the beauty of Midwest. These big families that come from were you did you grow up on a farm?

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yep. Okay. I moved within a five-mile radius from farm to acreage to farm.

SPEAKER_06 7:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

And then finally we are in in our little town now. And Lidell, when you introduced yourself to me, you said, Call me gopher.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Yeah. Where did that nickname come from?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Well, that just I don't know which one of my siblings or whatever, but our family had nicknames all the way down the line pretty much. Most of our siblings had some kind of and they were pretty weird nicknames. And I think I don't know, they said I played in the dirt as a kid, but I thought, oh, well, that's pretty normal. Yeah. Yeah. But um, so they just came up with a nickname and and it stuck through through school. That makes sense. Um and it stuck through me at the age I am at 63. It's still there.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Yeah. You talk to my military buddies and they still call me by my nickname. Okay. Kit.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

Not super original, but I've never heard of calling.

SPEAKER_05 8:09

I mean, I haven't met too many of your military buddies, but Kit. I get I have been called Kit Kat and Kettlecorn because of Kittelson. Yeah, kettle corn. That's interesting. Little kids who like to make things up. I also w when I was reading some of your story and doing some research, gopher, that it said that because you had a you drove a backhoe for your career for quite some time. So you're literally digging in the dirt.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

It was just a unbelievable how that fit in. You know, I was farming, of course, and doing that, but after um I bought into the company and stuff, um, yeah, that's all I in the summertime, that's all I did. Dirt work, dirt work, dirt work from septics to waterline dirt. No matter what it was, I was getting dirty and in the dirt.

SPEAKER_05 8:53

In the dirt.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 8:55

Well, I think it's I think it's a great nickname. So let's go to November 8th of 2021. Because speaking of working, you were on your way to work when your accident happened. And we I remember all of a sudden hearing um just the chatter. The chatter started coming that someone had been hit by a train. And so to hear this side of the story is going to be so beautiful coming directly from you. So just walk us through exactly what was happening that day, Liddell.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Well, for me, it was pretty much a normal day. Um, one thing I will say that that day was after daylight savings time. So that Monday, yeah, the sun or the day was different because obviously you're an hour change. Yeah. So um I did find out this later, and I don't know if it's a true statistic, but um they say most accidents kind of happen at most, but there's more accidents um percentage-wise on that day compared to just because of that hour time change. So I'm thinking I'm gonna pull that that's good doing that.

SPEAKER_05 10:08

Yeah, it's out of sorts. Yep, you're out of sorts a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

But I guess I will say it, it was it was a beautiful day. And it was, and I guess I'll say that more than once probably, it was a beautiful sunny day morning.

unknown 10:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Um, so we actually, because of where we were going for the job, me and my co-worker, um, we went to take our backhoe to the job, which was just right out of town, three miles. Yeah. Know it very well, um, because he has a job that um need we need to look over that job first of all, and then we need to get extra equipment out because I needed a boring machine to get to do what we're doing. We were boring a water line to a cattle fountain. So um, so we took tobacco out and we both came back into town after we met with the uh owner, and um, and so we just did a few things at the shop and then got in the other truck to go back out to actually do the job.

SPEAKER_05 11:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Um, and this was actually, you know, well, it was right at eight o'clock.

SPEAKER_05 11:13

Two separate vehicles. So you were you following the vehicle?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

So actually I got in to the big boring truck um to take it out. And sometimes my co-worker would actually drive that truck because I always drove the bar the backhoe truck, but for some reason I got into the the boring truck and he got into his pickup because what we needed was a uh we needed the water line behind the pickup with a roller. And so he got into the pickup and followed me to the job site.

SPEAKER_05 11:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

And so that's where um when we um left town, it was just got um had across the road track. I guess I could say we don't have to try across it. I could go a different direction on highway nine to go actually, so you go over the vi dock. But it's either way, and I just for some reason I took took that way, which is you know, you know, not abnormal, but so we just was heading out. I don't know what um happened as far as why I did not see this train. It was coming in from the south, comes in at a little angle on this track. Um but I will say the sun was so bright. Yeah, everybody's told me this, and I do remember that. But I when I get to heaven someday, I would like to ask Jesus what I was thinking or why I didn't see the train. See, that is the only replay. That is yeah, that is the only question I have of why this accident happened. I mean, I know God put it there for a reason because it I did hit the second locomotive, which is right in the front of the train, obviously. I hit the second locomotive.

SPEAKER_05 13:07

So it had already crossed.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

So yeah, we were just right in the we were a beeline to hitting each other. Um from people that were close to the site. Um, they heard the horn and they said, I've never heard a train horn so blow so loud and so long. Um, and that is another thing that I just um well there's two things I I'll tell you right off the bat that I hope I don't forget. For me, it was it was an accident, but the people involved in this accident, what they saw and how things happened, including my co-worker that followed me, uh right, was right behind the truck that saw the whole thing. And then there was two ladies walking on the other side of the track that actually they are the ones that called 911 right away. They didn't see it because they were on the other side of the train, but they were within feet of it happening. It was maybe hundreds of feet, but it was very close. They were right there. Um, and then I'll say my community as far as we have volunteers for our EMTs and our fire department. And I think of them often because of what they had to see. What they had to see. Yeah, yeah. Because it wasn't good. No, it I mean it was it was not good, and then um but is this a country road? It what it is is a it it is a blacktop that actually the re only reason it's kind of a blacktop, they all cemeteries have to have a blacktop. So the church cemetery of the Apostolic Church is on the other side of the tracks. Okay. So it they blacktopped it. Oh, I see. But um otherwise it's not in town, it's not no, it's nothing around. It's not a gravel road, but it is black, but it's all it has is crossings. Yeah, it does not have any arms or lights on it.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Um, but so I don't forget, I guess there's gonna be a blessing in this thing. Guess what? The farmer in that area had been trying to get lights and crossings because they use that so often that they've been talking to the Burlington for years and years. I shouldn't have probably said, That's okay.

SPEAKER_05 15:32

It's a train.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

That's okay. And um, but um they actually just got lights and they did and um arms on that crossing right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

So hopefully that's an expensive thing to get those get that equipment in there. And we're just now looking at the pictures the first time of the of the accidents.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Just wanted to give you a little um taste of what it looked like.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

So the truck you were driving looks like a dump truck. Yep. Okay. And so it's got the big cab on the front, and it looks like the driver's side is the one that really made the impact, where the passenger side is relatively unscathed.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Right. So that's kind of how the accident worked. Um I don't maybe want to say this, but I will. Um, I did not have my seat belt on. But I I feel God somehow I do wear it now in my truck, but I these short runs, I don't know why you do that, but different if it was a longer um where you go, I put them on sometimes, but if it just these short places, it was only three miles, I don't put them on all the time. But for some reason, God, I did not see the train at all. I visually cannot see the train, which is I think is a very it's a blessing. Because like you close your eyes, you that was you can't remember. I don't have nightmares, I don't have nothing, I don't have a visual nothing.

SPEAKER_05 17:02

So you you the train didn't hit you, you hit the train.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Right.

SPEAKER_05 17:06

And it didn't it drag you?

SPEAKER_01 17:08

No, it I I the train I I I feel the truck is was so heavy. I had a huge water tank in there for the water for the boring machine, and that was full. Okay. Um and stuff like that. And the it was just it, I was heavy. So it stopped. I stayed right there, but what happened? I turned into the train, which is just crazy. So I think I did see the train. For some reason, I actually turned. You would think you would turn away from the train. I turned south, which was in the train, and that is why my cab is to the left where I was sitting, yes, hit the train that had the brunt of the the thing where it got pushed back so much. Yeah. And but for the grace of God, I flew to the passenger side. Amazing.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

But it's top half, Daddy.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

My top, but I feel that, and that's why I guess we can get into that. I did what I lost. Um, but I think the reason I didn't fly into the train as far as through the windshield and all that stuff, yeah, because my legs got pinned instantly through the through the boards. It got crushed so fast that I I just stayed there, but I flew to the right side or to the passenger side, and that's where I stayed.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

For those listening, I just want to describe these pictures because they're really, they really are something. We've got the the truck, which looks like a dump truck, and the left hand, the driver's side is is pushed into a stopped train. So the train is stopped before it passed all the way through. I can see the passenger side tire, but there's no driver's side tire. And then another picture we can see internals of the engine. Yeah, the cam shaft was totally the engine got blown just totally apart. And then I'm looking at the passenger side, and there's just there's no room in the passenger side for any anyone. And then here's a picture of the of the just from the rear, where I can see the bed of the dump truck and forward of that is nothing.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Yeah. If I would have stayed there, that's where I felt. That's why I God save me totally.

SPEAKER_05 19:25

Hence, if you would have had your seat belt on, you may not be here today. Right. So Liddell, you did lose your left leg. They had to amputate your leg.

SPEAKER_06 19:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 19:34

You broke your left, was it your left arm and elbow? Yep. It was crushed.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 19:41

And also your right leg was severely damaged. I mean, both your legs were completely pinned. Correct. So were you were you, I mean, like, did it knock you out or were you awake for that?

SPEAKER_01 19:56

I was told I was unconscious when the first EMT came. Um, he was a farmer right there that got there within, and they're the god of having a small community and different volunteers. Yeah. His farm was only a half mile there, and he well heard the accident and got the pager. He did not even go back to the to the get anything. He came directly to the site.

SPEAKER_06 20:24

We got a we got a phone.

SPEAKER_04 20:25

Yes, we got a phone. We forgot that one thing. I did. It's okay.

SPEAKER_06 20:29

Sorry, that's fine.

SPEAKER_05 20:30

But you had you had your your coworker also is behind you. He is behind me. And he sees it.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

He totally sees it. Um, I will say this one thing I heard, you know, he told me in accounts of he did not see any brake lights in my truck.

SPEAKER_05 20:46

So you yeah, you were just heading over.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

I did not break or anything, so I don't know how fast I was going, but um, so yeah, he he was right there, and uh, these two ladies that were on the other side of the track were right there.

SPEAKER_05 21:00

Yeah. Um so you fast forward and all of a sudden you have everybody there trying to get you out because you're I mean, you could bleed to death with the exposure because you had bone exposure and just all of it. And then Shelly, you get the call. Can you please share with your sweet, tender heart what you were going through?

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Um, first of all, my son called me a little after eight and said, Mom, I can't get a hold of dad. And there's a train accident. And I'm like, okay, you know, I'll get out the plot book and see where such and such uh address is at. And so I got off the phone with him, and then the phone rang. I no, I'll take that back. I got off the phone with him, and then I tried to call Liddell. And then I got the call and I knew. I knew right away that I just had this feeling that it was him. But um so then yeah, his brother came and picked me up and went sorry went out there and I just remember getting out of the car and running and the cops stopped me and they won't let me go up there. So yeah, I just I kind of waited there for an hour. Oh no because it took I think it was like 53 minutes it took to get him out of the car.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Didn't even get to that as far as I was unconscious. Um, the first EMT, he woke, he got me awake within right away. Yeah. Um, I remember talking to him for an hour screaming. Um, I guess I remember my first words was to say that tell my kids and family I love them. Because I I don't I don't even know if I knew what hit me or what I hit. I really don't know if I that was even in my visual of knowing that, but I knew it was bad. And I I remember saying to him to just say, and he said, You're gonna tell him yourself. Oh yeah. And um he actually kept yelling at me for an hour because I kept saying, I just want to, I just want to go home. I just want to leave. I I I just I I was I was hurting. Yeah, the pain was happy. The pain was unbelievable. And um, and so that went on because and then talking to our friends that are on the EMT and on the fire department afterwards, um, that is one thing they they couldn't, they regret it took, like I said, an hour for them to get me pulled back because I was so crunched up against the train. Oh, it took 34 cars for that train to stop. Um, I hit the second locomotive, but I was actually on the 34th car. You know, that's how long it takes for trains to stop.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

He hit 32.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

As I as the train, the cars went by, they say there's a chance my elbow probably hit every every car, the ladders of them, cars and stuff. Yeah. So actually sitting there, I guess you can see that where I mean the EMT worked on me. He was on the platform of that corner of that car. Um, but he just, you know, he stayed with me the whole time and they fire department, and I can remember hearing them screaming to each other of what they're trying to do. They had a wrecker there, they had tractors there, they they couldn't pull the train back, I guess, once they found this out, because the frame of the truck, it's like a penny on a track. The frame was across the track, and the train kept going over top this frame. And what it did is curled it around the how the track is. It curled it around there, and they couldn't. That's why they couldn't pull the dump track back. Right. All they would have to do early is pull this truck, and they couldn't, they couldn't figure it. Well, I mean, they I think they figured it out, but it they had to get the right equipment to cut that frame so they could get this thing back. So they just said it just they seemed like it took too long because the helicopter came and it had to shut down. I mean, because they said usually you can get a person out, usually by the time the helicopter's there. Um but it it took a while.

SPEAKER_05 25:27

Had the conductor had he come back?

SPEAKER_01 25:29

I I do not go back.

SPEAKER_05 25:31

Have you ever met him?

SPEAKER_01 25:32

No. I I would love to talk to stuff like that. I don't know. Um, because I there again, that is one thing that I think of between the my co-worker and my wife and everybody that did everything for me, the trauma they had to go through because the stuff I went through, I mean, actually, yeah, there was no. I mean, once once I got onto the um out of the truck, I don't remember, I think. I think really for days and days and days because they drug me up so bad that I won't be surprised if this podcast makes it to that.

SPEAKER_05 26:12

To the conductor. Yeah, it's it's pretty one, it's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Because I don't I I I just can visually see him looking and knowing. And how do you see it? You know, and and I'm sure, you know, if you drive a train, a conductor probably sees it more than once in his lifetime because it's amazing now when you talk to people. Oh, I know somebody that well, either it was a near miss or it was where they got hit, but either most of the time got flowing and lucky or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

We know someone in the family who was on there riding a lawnmower and got hit. And you before something happened to me, I remember going, How in the world? How do you not hear the train? Because they're whistle, their their horns are so loud. We have tracks near in our small town and they go by like it vibrates our house and you can hear them. Until one day I dropped our kids off at um a daycare and taking a gravel road across a train track on the way to work, and I had to make an emergency stop as a a train was coming kind of diagonal to this to this gravel road because I didn't see it. I didn't hear it because the gravel road itself was loud enough to to why not to like I couldn't hear the train.

SPEAKER_05 27:23

And it and it also is to the east. And so the sun and where he was coming across, it's like it you when you look back around that corner, so everything you're explaining, I'm actually sitting where he's talking about in my head.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Like No, just in my head going along, look to the left, oh train. Let's hit the brakes. Yeah. And when you're in early in the morning, you're still in your head, the sun's in your eyes. Thinking about the truck is loud.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Well, that's possible too. I can a lot of times you think about what you're where you're gonna park the truck. What are you what are you gonna do when you get there? Yeah, you know, and it's possible. I could, you know, I just didn't look twice. I maybe looked once or, you know, but you could have even just been looking down at something.

SPEAKER_05 28:05

Shelly, when after so they get him out after an hour and there's people everywhere, right? Like I can't it's like just a whirlwind spinning around you with people and pe your phone's probably blowing up, and kids are wanting to know how dad is and friends, and because you're from a small town, this is like one big, huge family. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

That that is another thing.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

The community for me, I would say the hardest thing, because I don't remember, but I rem my son says too. I said, Well, did I call you? He's like, Yeah, mom.

SPEAKER_06 28:37

Yeah, he said.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

He said, I always know when I get a call from you guys in the morning that something isn't good. You know, and so, but I don't even remember that. But yeah, there was a lot of people around. And one thing when I did get there, um, a couple of the EMTs that could not stay up there because they were too close to him.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

My co-worker's secretary or the owners, I'm she's my secretary at Lutholds. She's on the EMT. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Oh so they always say when they know they can't be there, they back off. And both of them did come and tell me he's stable, you know. So that helped a lot. But um I just remember I wanted to see him when they put him on the helicopter, but they wouldn't let me because it was it was too bad that they I thought they made a line actually for respect. So all the fire department EMTs made a line in front of the helicopter, but later they told me they did that, so I wouldn't see because it was so bad.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Um Do you do you appreciate that?

SPEAKER_03 29:48

I I think I do.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Yeah, I mean, we know that their heart was in the right place. Yes, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

And um in the moment decisions are so hard.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

Yeah. And one of the EMTs did tell me, he said, Shelly, I knew if he wasn't gonna make it, I would have let you come up and see him. Okay, cool. So that, you know, that helped a lot. Um but yeah, you just I wanted to see him. I wanted to know what was going on. But I did get to see him right before they did take him back to surgery. Um, and he was he was in a lot of pain. So then I didn't see him. We probably didn't see him till real late that night after that. So we didn't see him. So flown to Sioux Falls? Yep, he was flown to Sioux Falls. Okay. Avera, Sanford. He was at Sanford. Oops. It's okay. It's all right. Um yeah, he was he was at Sanford. Um one thing I can tell you, he lost um 10 inches of his artery. That was literally ripped off. That was literally.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

How did I did not believe?

SPEAKER_05 30:52

I it's a I mean it's a I lost a lot of blood, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

But um but but they got he was there so quick, I think they got them tourniquets on like. Yes, they got them on fast. As fast as you could have an accident and get somebody to that site that knows something ahead that had the know-how to get down there to do that.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

They maybe had a way to their kit. I don't know. I I guess I don't know that.

SPEAKER_05 31:22

Um Liddell, you get to the hot you guys, I mean, like just the process of like the the timeline of it all, and you get to Sioux Falls and they realize that this is something that we like the reconstructive that we can't like we gotta fly you somewhere else. But did you wake up, were you out until you got to the specialty hospital in Nebraska?

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Or how No, I remember the hospital a little bit. The only reason I remember people coming, you know, the family got to remember this is COVID too. It was during COVID. So I guess we can say that that that only I don't know about up the hospital. Yeah, it was only two of us that could go in. But I was there for two and a half days because they were trying to find I was just getting, I was being worked on to get cleaned out because there is another that's another thing. I never had any infections of my legs, one bit or anything. I mean, this truck is a dirty truck. The site was dirty, the water blew up. I mean, the grout that we were carrying was all over. They had foam all over. Anyway, to make a long story short, I did not get an infection, but they did such a great job of obviously keeping my wounds clean, but they just that's all they did for two and a half days, I think. Well, obviously they took my left leg off right away, right?

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Did they? They amputated almost. So the first the first day they went in and cleaned up and had to see what was going on. And then they came back to me and said they needed to take him up to do an angiogram to see if the other um artery in the right leg was going to be blood, the blood was going to be flowing good enough to save that leg. So that we didn't really know. I mean, we thought maybe he could lose both, but there was one artery that was still good. So then they did they kind of more or less just wrapped his, you know, put a brace on his arm with pins and stuff. And and then the day before we left to go to Omaha, they did amputate his leg. Um, they did that below the knee first, because yeah, like they say, it's always better to be below the knee than above.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

It's um you can keep the knee as an amputee, is it the it's just so much appealing. Well, it's just walking. It's easier to get back to normal because you have the knee to work with and it's not as taxing. I guess they say your energy usage of walking without that knee, just the how you gotta walk, is so much harder.

SPEAKER_05 34:03

They were able to save your knee?

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Well, well, they were able to they at first they did, they um amputated it below. Okay, and then um, yeah, then they flew him down.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Okay, that another story as far as they tried really hard to get me somewhere, nobody would almost take me, but our doctor here in Sioux Falls, he knew he kept getting, I think, upset.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Yeah, no, he that I wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

He doesn't remember a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

Yeah, go ahead, Shelly. Actually, the his doctor in Sioux Falls, the trauma surgeon, um, actually did residency in Omaha with this other, with this doctor that did his surgeries in Omaha, the PA. He worked with her PA before. So then he had called down there. And yeah, they got him in. They tried mail, they tried all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

My son came in and said, We're going to Omaha because we were we're just, he was getting upset and everybody was because time is time was a massive. All I was doing is laying there with a lot of drugs. But like I said, I remember I remember stuff because I remember the Simpsons and I because I was getting so I was getting illusions of how much drugs they put in me. I was just going nuts as far as things were just flying in my head and whatever, and I do remember that. But I I remember my son Bo coming in and said, We're going. We're going. And they got us with to the airport within a short time and then flew me down there.

SPEAKER_05 35:36

Three surgeons were on you. Pretty much three reconstructive surface surgeons.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Three surgeons in Omaha, and that was the biggest blessing. How God worked that way to get me in the right spot because I I will talk how these every one of them were just so great. So so great. I mean, my recovery, you know, just I never had no trouble. Um, I mean, the only trouble I had was in my elbow, I guess. They had to re go in there after they took the sling and the thing off. Um, I was uh actually at Madonna then, and um they saw my, you know, my all my pins. I have like 16 screws in this elbow. And um, but they said, how are we gonna move this? But they tried to keep moving it and it wouldn't move much. Calcium depends. And what happened? I was healing so fast that I think I think they just I was just I just seized up in there. So he actually had to go into that elbow and scrape out this calcium and all that stuff again. Wait, you know, later down the road. And actually, that was the hardest surgery I had to recover.

SPEAKER_05 36:46

Was your arm?

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Yeah, my arm because I he went back in there and I it hurt. And then when I did the rehab here in Sioux Falls at Ivara, I did all my physical therapies up here. And um, but that was a tough therapy, re you know, just to start moving that elbow.

SPEAKER_05 37:03

So did they build you a new knee?

SPEAKER_03 37:06

So I'll finish when we got when we got to Omaha, um, you know, they assessed him on we got down there on Thursday night, and on Friday they started just assessing the whole situation. Um and then some of the skin started dying below the knees. So they had to go above the knee because they didn't have enough.

unknown 37:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Because you have to have skin wrapped around. So when you have a prosthesis on, it's gotta be good enough where it doesn't get sores and whatever. So if you don't have the skin that's living, obviously it's gotta live, but it's it's just gotta be a good stump.

SPEAKER_06 37:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

And so that's when they took that above the knee, which is bad, but it was obviously something they had to do.

SPEAKER_05 37:52

Yeah. So um mid-thigh. It's just right above the knee above.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

And there I'm blessed because I have a a great stump. It's long or it's long enough and stuff, because some people they they actually have to take it up higher, so you don't have a whole lot of area there to put that prosthesis around to hold it, and then you just run into different situations, different things that can it just doesn't work as well and stuff.

SPEAKER_05 38:19

So and then they saved your right leg, which was an incredible thing. Miracle.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

So on his right leg from below the knee, everything was below the knee except his elbow. Um, he had like three inches of skin left on that leg of just normal skin.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

The rest was all gone. Everything else was gone. I was told it looked like a meat grinder's ground everything up into that.

SPEAKER_03 38:45

So they were very, yeah, we're very fortunate that they could save that. Um, but yeah, he had multiple surgeries. Um, they did a trans flap where they took what they call the swimmer's muscle or whatever there, and they reconstructed his leg with that. The back muscle. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yep. And that was, I think that was probably one of the longest surgeries he had was 12 hours because they had to do all the, you know, the vessels, the everything. And we didn't know if that was gonna take. That was one thing his doctor said, you know, this might not take, but it did.

SPEAKER_05 39:25

It did lots and lots of prayers. I remember, wow, yeah. There's yeah, he's there it is. Gopher is showing us his right leg of all the graphics.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Yeah, it's there, it's there, and I walk with it.

SPEAKER_05 39:39

Yeah, it's that's incredible. I um I I'm just I'm so impressed at how well you can share this story without like gopher, without because it's just you were under you're in so much shock. Like that shock, how I think of how God has so divinely knitted every single one of us, and how when stuff like that happens, our bodies are so beautiful, like how He has created our bodies to do certain things, like how you can and surgeons, how they have learned to do the things they can do.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

That's how God has gifted them.

SPEAKER_05 40:13

Yes. There's there it it's it it is so divine in the prayers. I mean, the chain of prayers that happened, and so God's intervention in all of it. I mean, it was so he was so present. Was there a moment within all of this that you just go, oh man, he was he was right there?

SPEAKER_01 40:33

I do, yeah, it all the time. All the time, you know, when obviously we had to um go somewhere from from the hospital to where my rehab was, and they took us to, I'm gonna say Madonna, yeah, and I'm gonna put a plug in that was just the greatest thing ever, because there for a while they were thinking, well, where's he gonna be able to go? Like even they mentioned a nursing home, and I said, No, I I don't want to do that and whatever. But every step of the way, it just seemed like God had a a plan of the best place for I could go to for mental and physical help. Um, so once I got there, you know, and I will say that um another miracle that I I I'll just say it it's amazing. I had workman's comp insurance.

SPEAKER_06 41:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

And I don't know if anybody I if I can tell this story, but I will. Well, I wasn't supposed to have it. And it was a miracle.

SPEAKER_05 41:29

Well, there's a there's a lot of times that um you you want you want to know why. You're like, why, why? And God is ahead of it all, all of it. It doesn't matter what like what the scenario, what the story, what the age, whatever it is. I always will say, no matter because people live in a lot of fear. They live in a lot of fear, and I always say, it doesn't matter. Like the the fear to allow God to take that from you because he's ahead of whatever is to come. And no matter the tragedy, no matter the accident, no matter what the scenario is, to trust that he is ahead of it. Um, like our business with COVID, I mean, just all of it, you're like, God, I don't understand. And he's like, You don't really have to. I got you. I got you. So that's there, yeah. Cause that's not a small financial thing that you I mean, any type of surgery.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

That was a blessing surgery. Totally a blessing. Yeah. That that things worked out that way also.

SPEAKER_05 42:26

Shelly, what was uh what was a moment for you? Do you have a specific moment at all that you keep going back to where God was right there?

SPEAKER_03 42:36

Um, yeah, I don't know. I think he was there the whole time. Through all of it. Yeah. I just remember I was always thought, and I don't know if I necessarily was brought up that way, that you never get angry with God.

SPEAKER_05 42:48

Yeah, you don't.

SPEAKER_03 42:49

You know, you just but there was one night that I did, you know, because I spent multiple nights in the motel room, yeah, right next to the hospital and Madonna, and you have kids at home that are going to school, and you're trying to be a mom and a a wife, and um, I just remember I was so mad and I just screamed. And I think that for me was one of the best things I did.

SPEAKER_05 43:16

He can take it. Yeah. I yeah, it's okay to get angry. Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

But yeah, just there was a lot of, you know, there was a lot of crying. There was a lot of, you know, even when I come home with my wheelchair and to get back, actually living with my wife, or it was whatever.

SPEAKER_03 43:35

Yeah, we were he was not at home for three months, you know, a little short of three months.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

I mean, it doesn't seem that long in a way, but you know, uh, but in a way, it was a long time. And just to get reconnected with the injuries and her to actually have to see my leg when you don't have it on and stuff as much. I mean, obviously in the hospital it did, but you you're in the hospital bed and it's different. But it's amazing how they're again to the stigma of, you know, when people, you know, they they can think about the leg not being there, but and actually they really can't until you actually take this leg off and actually somebody sees that, you know, when I have shorts on and stuff, you can see that. And it's, you know, that's another thing you I went through the process of their people looking at you and stuff, and stuff like that. It doesn't seem like a big thing, but in a way it it it is, you know, but it's all a whole new experience, yeah. It is, you know, but like I said, it you you think about them things, but then I go, I'm here, Lord.

SPEAKER_06 44:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

And um, thank you for at least giving me some extra time because um once see my youngest grandchild, and you know, just just stuff that you're gonna miss. And obviously, the world's not perfect yet. So some some days when we're fighting to whatever, I'm thinking, why am I even here, Lord?

SPEAKER_06 45:04

Wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

Why didn't you take me, Lord? You know, when you have, you know, there's days, you know, obviously, nothing's um he gives you trials and and so we we'll just move on. And I always said that one day at a time type deal, Lord. It has to be just get me the next one day, get me through this next day.

SPEAKER_05 45:22

Do you still have any pain?

SPEAKER_01 45:24

No, no pain, not so much. I take a little bit of drugs for fathom pain is a big thing with with uh when you have an ampetee. Yeah, um, you can have this fathom pain. Um, that's where that one um thing with that one, the doctor that had that report on me, that he actually there's that's a miracle too. Most doctors don't do that, that it's a trans or what do you call it?

SPEAKER_05 45:46

Targeted muscle reinervation. Right.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

I got the right doctor that does that.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

He was there that night and and he actually was just the um plastic surgeon type thing. He he just went in and and he just said to me, Can I do this? Wow, and I'm like, sure.

SPEAKER_05 46:06

So great.

SPEAKER_03 46:07

You know, because he really wasn't supposed to have much. So he did that the time that they did the translap. And yeah, it was just like every single doctor that should have been there was there. It makes such a huge difference for your future.

SPEAKER_05 46:22

And what what kind of um circumstances you're gonna be walking into with you're now an amputee, you're even just the scars and all the internal connection that they had to refuse and rewire and because it was all ripped.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

Yeah. So the delicacy. I mean, it's you know the stuff you go through the through the airport and they definitely can see.

SPEAKER_05 46:44

You're bionic. Is that the right word, honey? He's bionic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

He's a superhero.

SPEAKER_05 46:51

We're pretty much. Oh, we're so I just this it's really beautiful to be able to hear it from both of you just directly right now. Because we, I mean, we were I was on my knees.

SPEAKER_04 47:04

I was praying. I was like, I don't even know this guy. I just know Shelly.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

I heard the prayers. I mean, I I guess I never felt prayers so much down, you know, once I started obviously getting off the drugs, probably. But um, you know, for you know, people that either called or came down, obviously with COVID, it was not as as much as you know, probably would have been. But um, but the prayers, it didn't matter. I could feel them. I I mean I started catching, I started listening to I used to in um K Love or K KMWC. I used to listen to Christian music some, but then I never really listened to the words so much as far as, but so when I was down there listening, I actually paid attention to the the worship music and actually it's amazing how you can have a you know, just uh pretty much getting preached to through song. Yeah. And I I started doing that down there because like I say, before I would just kind of, you know, she would have it on the radio and I would know the tunes, but I wouldn't really listen to the words. And so I started to learn how to do that. But um, it it was just amazing how the the prayers and our our community. When I came home with well, with game plan for a whole van, and that was another miracle that I wasn't supposed to even they try to get me home in another van, uh whatever, and it fell through. And I called Jeff up and I said, Jeff, you got a van for me? Oh, sure. Yeah, I said, You're on standby, and I that morning or that the day before that fell through. I and he said, No, so my son and her.

SPEAKER_05 48:43

What color was the van? Gray.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

Gray.

SPEAKER_05 48:45

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

Jeff Jeff is one of the executive directors and one of the mechanics at Game Plan. Game Plan. Yeah. We've mentioned in the past helps company, uh helps individuals with disabilities or physical. Or life changing. Life-changing than that. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

And so he came through and they, I mean, because I said I am not staying down here. I don't I mean, I was having a good experience, but I I had that day. But when we did come home, and I don't know how they pulled it off, but I will remember this too, because that's where the community comes through. They pretty much gave me a homecoming parade. I come through Lester, Leicester. I don't know. It's okay. It's alright. That's fine. And that small town, I mean, they were lined up through the whole main street and on the other street, and my co-workers had the back go out with a sign that said, Welcome home, go for it. I cried.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

I cried.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Um and it would just, I mean, the blessing of a small community knowing, I know, knowing the people that that were had prayed for you and that care that it you you can't even imagine. I can't imagine not being in a small community like that. I mean, if you're in a you know, whatever. You know, I'm sure that every area is different, but but this one was just unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05 50:08

Yeah. Did you you were gonna ask something? Remember the you were good?

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Yeah, I'm good. Uh this has been just a wonderful uh story and an inspiration to me. And I I was uh thinking earlier how this could have turned you against a weight uh against a faith. Why me? What the heck? There can't be a guy that would let me have that let this happen to me, but it strengthened your faith. It's had just the opposite effect. And so thank you for that testimony.

SPEAKER_03 50:39

Well, and for one thing, I mean, for us, it helped us as a family so much that he never was angry. Yeah, that he didn't, he was it was always positive from day one. He never got mad, never so that helped us through it too. I think that really helped us as a family.

SPEAKER_02 50:59

To me, it is proof that there is a God, a God who can use these situations. I personally don't believe that like my brother who died away, uh passed away from cancer. I don't think God gave cancer to my little brother. I believe Nate got cancer and it was hard, and God used that situation for the for his glory. Yeah, other people have come to come to Christ now have a better life because of things, yeah, you know, because of what happened. Same thing in your situation. And oh only a God who cares who's physically involved in this earth can do that. I think that's just proven. Supernatural, yeah, complete that you could he does things just on his own accord, that probably wouldn't happen. Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

So I just I just can't say it enough. I just I I feel still blessed that um God saved me and um and we can work work through this and you get to continue to be the patriarch of your family. Anybody out there, I I mean, I don't like to just I mean, I'm not the type of person to go out and go speak and whatever, you know. But if people ask me, I told God that was in Madonna.

SPEAKER_03 52:09

I says, no matter what Jesus was his favorite song.

SPEAKER_01 52:12

If they if they want me to talk or whatever, I won't talk very well, but I will give you my story because it's God's story.

SPEAKER_05 52:19

It is God's story.

SPEAKER_01 52:20

And so that I mean, I will do the best I can, but uh gopher, you talk just fine.

SPEAKER_05 52:26

Yes. You're here's it's great. There's no right, there's no right or wrong when you're sharing your own story, which is what God has given you is your testimony. So thank you for sharing it with us.

SPEAKER_02 52:36

So either get a hold of us, or I don't know if we'll put the contact information in the show notes, but if you're you're available to come tell your story, is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01 52:44

Anybody. I mean, I I am not shy of trying. Yeah, I mean, that's that's all I can do. I mean, if I mean, like I said, uh one time I was telling some kids and whatever, and I said, Do you want me to take my leg off?

SPEAKER_06 52:57

Everybody go!

SPEAKER_00 52:58

There was like two or three of them that said, Yes, yes. So I did. Yeah, you want to see some eyes opening.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

Yeah, I did. But I think it's amazing, it's a good way to show them like our neighbor can't be able to do it. You'll be stupid. Yeah, that wasn't the best thing.

SPEAKER_01 53:12

You know, it is just something, and it's amazing the people you see in the stores and whatever you when you don't have just like buying a car that's your color or whatever, and all of a sudden everybody's got that color. Yeah, well, now I mean I you notice things in the go, and then you'll actually say hi or make sure you say hi and they'll see and whatever and share this. It's yeah, share your story.

SPEAKER_05 53:34

It's a community, a new community.

SPEAKER_01 53:36

We follow Apatie Coalition and stuff. I'm not good at re well, I don't do it at all as far as replying, but I love reading it, and it's amazing how many people most of the time it's they're having trouble. I mean, something was going on there mentally or physically, it's not working out and whatever. And there again, too, you got to have the right processes guy. And I went to Sioux City for that. Perfect. I had the right one there, too.

SPEAKER_05 54:01

Yeah, I uh the the the beauty that comes from the ashes, just like the song, right? We we speak about that all the time about you are introduced into a whole new world and a new community you didn't even know existed once stuff like this happens. And so thank you for sharing your story, both of you. Thank you for having us from both sides. It's been a really You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 54:22

Thank you for having me. It's been beautiful. I never knew about you until a little while ago.

SPEAKER_05 54:25

So hi, welcome to the world of podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

Welcome and I'm sorry. Here you go.

SPEAKER_04 54:30

And this is just the beginning, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 54:33

Maybe for you guys. You get doing very well. Thank you so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 54:39

Thank you so much for listening. We want to change lives through this podcast. And if you want to support this podcast or our guests, please see the links below for our Patreon and giving links.

SPEAKER_05 54:48

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