RURAL GARVIN — While he didn’t win the lottery, Brad Pagel considers himself pretty lucky — Pagel survived a tractor rollover accident on Sunday afternoon.

“Considering what I went through about 24 hours ago, I’m in good shape,” Pagel said from a hospital bed on Monday. “There’s no broken bones and no internal injuries that we know of. I’m very lucky.”

Pagel, a Slayton resident and Commander of the Slayton American Legion Post 64, was cleaning manure out of the cattle yard at the rural Garvin home of his parents, Kay and Darrell Pagel, when the tractor tipped and pinned him to the ground.

The 49-year-old said he remembers coming off the concrete with a bucketload of manure, but he’s not sure what exactly caused the International 400 tractor to tip.

“We got done doing beans, so it was time to clean the cattle yard,” Pagel said. “I was coming off the concrete and I don’t know if a tire blew or what. I just know I couldn’t lower the bucket quick enough to keep it from tipping over. It was like I was watching it in slow motion.”

Despite having difficulty breathing once he was trapped between the ground and the tractor, Pagel said he yelled for help. He said he was grateful that his nieces and nephews, along with his mom, were outside and heard his pleas.

“I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “It was pretty scary. I was hollering for help and (my brother) Emil’s kids and Mom were outside and were able to hear me. Otherwise, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

The Garvin First Responders and Fire Department were the first to be paged, around 3 p.m. on Sunday. Balaton Fire Department, Balaton Ambulance and Tracy Ambulance weren’t far behind.

“I was actually only a mile-and-a-half away, so I was one of the first to respond to the scene,” Balaton Fire Chief Troy Wendland said. “I observed that it was an open station tractor and it was rolled over. He was pinned in between the driver’s seat and the ground.”

Wendland said they ended up using the 1086 tractor — a second tractor that Pagel had hooked up to the manure spreader — to lift some of the pressure off.

“We have four different air bags in our rescue truck and they run off these air breathing bottles — self-containing breathing apparatus (SCVA),” Wendland said. “We hooked that up to the air bags, so it was like a big heavy mat. They inflate really tall. That worked really well to lift the tractor up a little bit. It was very chaotic at the scene for about 45 minutes.”

Wendland said (Pagel) was alert and conscious the whole time.

“He’s a very fortunate individual to be alive,” Wendland said.

Pagel was in a great deal of pain, including pain from a large, deep wound in his thigh.

“The PTO lever on the 400 (tractor) went about 4 inches into my thigh,” Pagel said. “We’re dealing with it so it doesn’t get infected. Then besides that, there’s just a lot of bruising. It could’ve been a whole lot worse.”

Along with the other emergency crews, North Memorial Health — Air Care responded to the emergency call in Lyon County. While patient care was still provided, there was a slight delay in transporting Pagel to Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“During the helicopter start-up procedures, the helicopter pilot noted a fault code,” said Katy Sullivan, North Memorial Health corporate communication manager. “The medical crews from the helicopter and (Balaton) ambulance decided to transfer the patient to the ambulance and then to nearby Tracy Hospital. The pilot and flight mechanic were able to clear the fault code and return the helicopter to service.”

Wendland said that Balaton Fire and Tracy Fire Department assisted with the helicopter landing on Minnesota Highway 59.

“After the first helicopter had a mechanical message, (Pagel) was diverted to Tracy,” he said. “Then he was airlifted to Sioux Falls with another chopper after that.”

Pagel said he recalls Balaton volunteer Jared Hively was driving the ambulance.

“He took me to Tracy while we waited for another bird to come from Sioux Falls,” Pagel said. “They couldn’t believe (the thigh puncture) was the only injury I had. It missed a main artery in the leg. I got lucky.”

Pagel has been up walking a few times since being hospitalized, but it hasn’t been without excruciating pain. While some pain is to be expected, Pagel’s wife, Tricia Stoakes-Pagel, said the doctors are still trying to figure out what is causing the noticeable discomfort while he’s walking.

“When I was pinned, the PTO lever was into my leg and I couldn’t move it,” Brad Pagel said. “Now I cannot walk without pain. They’re trying to figure out why I have strange pains in different positions. They’re making sure it’s not serious before I go home.”

According to Minnesota Agricultural Fatalities and Injuries, tractor rollovers are the single deadliest type of farm incident. Six tractor-related fatalities took place in Minnesota in 2017. So when any farm accident occurs, it becomes a reminder about the importance of safety.

Wendland said the tractor that tipped did not have a rollover protection bar, which is now on most tractors.

“The rollover protection comes up and over above the driver, so if the tractor does tip over, that bar is going to hit the ground instead of the driver,” Wendland said. “But you have to use the seat belt, too.”

While the emergency call on Sunday seems to have “turned out for the better,” Wendland said this time of year is a good time to remind people to just slow down and be careful.

“An extra minute might save a life,” he said. “Every driver and farmer needs to take extra time and not push too hard. This (agricultural) year has been challenging, but you shouldn’t hurry too much. That’s oftentimes when accidents happen.”