The kid in the bathtub who got his arms cut off in a tractor.

In 1992, a teenager was working in his family’s farm when his arms got caught and cut off in a tractor. He still managed to get back into the house, stand in a bathtub, and called 911 using a pencil in his teeth. Both his arms were reattached by surgeons, and he came to be known as ‘the kid in the bathtub.’

18-year-old John Thompson, was known to be a shy innocent boy, afraid of the crowd. One day, he was home alone when he decided to work in his family’s farm. But his arms got caught in a tractor’s power takeoff. He was immediately knocked unconscious. 

When he gained his consciousness back, he noticed that his arms were completely detached from his body. He immediately got up, went inside the house, stood up the bath-tub so that he doesn’t ruin the house carpet with his blood, and called for help using a pencil in his mouth.

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The surgeons reattached both his arms, while he attempted to get back to a normal life that he had before the incident. He would get many people asking him about the event, after he made international headlines. 

But every time someone asked him about it, he would reply, “It wasn’t a big deal.” He shrugged it off, as he no longer wanted to be associated with that tragic incident. But John’s mother hasn’t forgotten even a slightest bit of it. “To me, it was like it happened yesterday,” says the mother, Karen Thompson. 

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John was supposed to graduate from his school. But he didn’t. So he began motivating people on perseverance, and farm safety instead. After touring enough, giving lectures, he published a book, “Home in One Place,” that talked about his life. It became a bestseller in Midwest, in 2002. Even then, he was desperate to put that tragic event behind him and move on. But it only made his life more complicated, and never the same.

John could no longer button a shirt, shake hands, or write like a normal person, despite having more than 30 surgeries and attempting to put the incident 20 years behind him. He is also unemployed because employers wouldn’t give him a chance as he is living with disability.

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During winters, the arthritis pain in his arms becomes intolerable. This has led him to consider moving to a warmer place, such as Arizona.

While it may not look like his life has gotten back to normal, John still has family who love him to their very core and would do anything in the blink of an eye. He also had friends who would come over just to change a burned-out light bulb. “I can almost sense from miles if he’s having a bad day, and he does the same with me,” said Karen.

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