On This Date in Minnesota History: October 5

October 5, 1986 – Both of David Virnig’s “arms were severed above the elbows when he got caught in machinery while chopping silage on the family farm at Hillman, Minn.” His parents rushed him by car 40 miles to the hospital in Little Falls, Minn. Friends found his arms, “one of which had been thrown 30 feet from the machinery,” and put them “on ice to preserve them for a separate trip to the hospital.” Then David and his “detached arms were flown by helicopter to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, Minn.” Three surgeons reattached his arms, but they became so severely infected, that the doctors were forced to amputate them.

Minneapolis Star and Tribune; “Surgeons lose 8-day battle to save teen-ager’s arms”; October 16, 1986; p. 3B.