By Paris Goodnight
Salisbury Post
After cutting off his own arm with his John Deere pocketknife, Sampson Parker knew his life would change. But in many ways, he’s the same as he ever was: thankful, humble, soft-spoken and content.
He’s told the story so many times since the Sept. 11, 2007, accident that he’s lost track óand a quick Internet search turns up more written accounts and television reports than you could ever count. But he just got a new prosthetic arm from Faith Prosthetics in Concord and that’s sparked another round of interview requests. In fact, the people working at Faith Prosthetics have come to expect a reporter to be tailing Parker each time he visits.
With such a tale, it’s not hard to see why people remain interested.
The fateful day started with the normal chores he’s done for years in Camden, S.C., at what he calls “a hobby farm.” He and his wife, Lee Ann, kept the farm when they moved to Harrisburg about five years ago.
He was cutting a field of corn when a cornstalk got stuck in the rusty old picker. Parker reached in to free it. But his right arm got lodged in the machine, and he spent an hour trying to break free. Then, when he jammed a metal rod into the machine, hoping for a miracle, he got a spark instead, which triggered a fire that soon spread. He realized then ó he had to lose his arm or his life. He used his pocketknife and started cutting away at his arm.
In his television interviews, he describes how he really thought he was going to die as his skin started melting ó “It was just dripping off.”
He finally jammed the knife into his arm and cut enough away to break free from the machine. He made his way to the road and managed to wave down Doug Spinks, a volunteer firefighter who was passing by at the right time. Despite his own heroic efforts, Parker credits Spinks with saving his life.
A week ago, the Army National Guard awarded Spinks the Extraordinary Achievement Medal for his actions, and Parker was there with his wife for the ceremony.
Parker still suffers from the burns and injuries to his shoulder, above where he cut the bone and muscle to free himself.
Like mountain climber Aron Ralston, who was stuck for five days under an 800-pound boulder before using a pocketknife to cut off his arm, Parker says he just did what he had to do to survive.
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Parker was out of work from September to November recovering, but he was ready ó earlier than his doctors wanted ó to get back on his job in Salisbury with Blythe Construction. “My job requires more supervising,” he said. “Manual labor would be tougher. I wanted to go back.”
Parker eyes the Interstate 85 project through Salisbury, which he’s supervised for nearly three years, and sees light at the end of all the orange barrels. As supervisor of about 30 employees, down from about 90 at the peak, he’s had to learn to write lefthanded and type with one hand. A Blythe employee for 25 years, he works from mobile units set up at the end of the new Exit 79, to Spencer/East Spencer.
Some good news for motorists traveling north: I-85 construction leading to the Yadkin River should be complete by March, he said.
Since the accident, he has appeared on the “Today” show twice, once after flying to New York City for a live studio appearance with Matt Lauer, and talked with reporters as far away as Australia. He even heard from an author in Hawaii who wants to put him in a book called “Against All Odds.” He’s not shy about detailing the accident, and that’s why he was perplexed at one Associated Press report that had a line near the end saying he wouldn’t comment when contacted. “Not this Sampson Parker,” he said.
He notes his tiny hometown of Kershaw, S.C., which is not far from Camden and his farm, had two Sampson Parkers ó and two Sampson Parker Jrs. (one is his son) ó and maybe the reporter called the wrong one.
These days, he and his wife drive from Harrisburg to Rowan County to work. Lee Ann Parker is an accountant for Gary Morgan in Granite Quarry. After a time as a branch manager for a bank, she decided to go back to school at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. She hadn’t been on her new job long when her husband lost his arm, and she needed weeks off to be with him.
She praises Morgan and the staff. “They’ve been so gracious to me and my family,” she said.
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Parker says he picked Faith Prosthetics after looking at three other places. He chose the Concord location for convenience, since it is between his Harrisburg home and Salisbury job.
He’s working with Sam Brouillette because of Brouillette’s expertise with artificial arm and making them fit right for each patient. Parker’s prosthesis is Brouillette’s 305th arm device. Prosthetic devices are needed more often to replace lower limbs lost to diabetes.
Parker said he started the relearning process right away. In the hospital, he had to feed himself left-handed. It reminded him of doing lefthanded drills when he played basketball in high school.
“I picked up on it quick. It’s all in your head,” he said.
He continues rehab at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
He’s still working on the fine points of maneuvering the new arm, which uses a figure 8 harness that goes around his back and straps on his other arm. Muscle movements control raising and lowering the arm and opening and closing the clamp at the end, while some parts are battery operated, with a switch on the arm that Parker pushes against his ribs.
Brouillette noted that insurance policies like Parker’s max out quickly on such devices. Parker’s arm has cost $20,000 so far, about twice what insurance will cover, with the rest being donated by Faith Prosthetics and the manufacturers. People who get bionic arms, with more sophisticated electronic components, will pay $70,000 or more.
Parker is thankful for the care he’s received from Faith Prosthetics. “I was lucky to find them,” he said.
Lee Ann Parker says her husband has always been thankful and displayed a positive spirit since the accident. “Nothing majorly changed around the house, except he’s more aware of his maker,” she said.
She describes her husband as the most unselfish person she’s ever met. When he finally emerged from intensive care, he apologized to his relatives for putting them through so much with a careless error.
That prompted Sampson Parker Jr. to tell his dad, “You said it once ó don’t say it again,” she recalled,
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Before the Parkers moved to Harrisburg, they lived on the farm in South Carolina and raised cows. But they sold the cows, and now he just plants corn there for the deer. He also has a pond for fishing.
The folks at Faith Prosthetics haven’t overlooked their patient’s love of hunting and fishing. Parker got two pieces for his new arm earlier this month, one a U-shaped cradle to hold a shotgun or rifle, and the other a fishing rod that actually attaches to the arm. He’ll have to learn to shoot lefthanded, just like he had to relearn writing. But he doesn’t expect that to be too hard.
“The shotgun motion, I can do it lefthanded. But ducks are flying fast,” he said. “I haven’t tried it.”
This weekend will be his last shot for this year since the season is over at the end of January. But he’s optimistic, and says the real key is “being there at the right time.”
He’ll be using the piece created by Texas Assistive Devices (www.n-abler.org), which builds many specialty items like the gun cradles and even carpentry tools to attach to a prosthesis.
He expects to be back at the farm in the spring planting corn again ó and he’s made his peace with the tragic event on a trip back to the scene. “He just disappeared,” his wife recalled. “Then he walks up and said, ‘Me and God and the corn picker had a little prayer.’ ”
Losing his arm may have changed his life, but it didn’t leave him embittered.
“I thank God every morning when I wake up that I’m alive,” he said.
Contact Paris Goodnight at 704-797-4255 or pgoodnight@ salisburypost.com.