For Daniel Roberts, of Galesburg, Dec 5, 2022 was like whatsoever other work 24-hour interval. Dan was a crude carpenter with the physically demanding job of using a big saw to make assembly line cuts in timbers.

"I was cutting timbers in the shop with a heavy, portable circular saw that has a sixteen ½ inch bore blade." Dan said. "I had made nearly 30 consecutive cuts, and I decided to take a intermission. That'southward when I turned to lay the saw on a cart that's specifically designed to concord the saw."

Simply the cart had moved and wasn't where Dan thought it was. The saw blade, yet spinning, cutting a 15-inch gash from his groin to his left knee. The iii-inch deep cut nicked the os and severed his femoral avenue.

"I knew I was in trouble," Dan said. "I started yelling at people to telephone call 911."

A nearby French co-worker who spoke fiddling English came over to aid. Although he could not sympathise a lot of what Dan was saying, he did understand the French give-and-take "tourniquet."

"He took his belt off and wrapped information technology around my upper thigh, groin region," Dan said. "Afterward that, everything happened fast. The adjacent thing I knew I was existence scooted off past ambulance to OSF St. Mary [Medical Center]. The terminal things I retrieve are the doors flying open and seeing all of the staff surrounding me. That's when I knew I had done everything I could do to survive, and I was in the easily of the professionals.

"Everything from that point on is just me telling you what I was told. It was very bad."

'They not but saved my leg, they saved my life'

Dan was in a lot of trouble. Depending on how the femoral artery is severed, a person can slip into unconsciousness and even dice within a few minutes. The tourniquet had bought him the time he needed for the paramedics to get him to the Emergency Department at OSF HealthCare St. Mary Medical Center. It was all a question of but how much time Dan had.

The emergency staff at OSF St. Mary would have preferred to take Dan by OSF Life Flight to OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria for such a delicate surgery. However, the attending surgeon, Dr. Thomas Whittle, knew that Dan would not survive the flight and required surgery immediately. The Emergency Department staff and surgical squad shifted into summit gear.

"They got me in the operating room and removed an artery from my correct leg and repaired the one in my left leg," Dan said. "And at that place was a lot of swelling, so they had to brand a large incision and have a clamper out of both sides of my calf to salve the pressure. They basically sutured my thigh dorsum together."

Dan had lost nine units of blood, simply the surgery was a success.

"I take full capacity in my leg, every bit far as everyday employ goes. At that place has been some pain here and in that location but equally far equally a limp – no. I was able to return to work with no restrictions iii months after the blow," Dan said. "As far as nerve impairment and all that, I tin can't lift my big toe on my left leg, but the doctor said that may come up back over time.

"Unremarkably y'all bleed out in a matter of minutes when yous sever a chief avenue like I did. They got me in the operating room and went to work on me and not merely saved my leg only my life besides," Dan said. "I never did have to go to Peoria. I stayed at OSF St. Mary for everything."