Ed Ramsey’s day last Thursday didn’t quite go as he had likely planned, but in the end, it all worked out on a positive note.

Ramsey, who works on a large grain farm in the Bald Rock Community owned by Dr. Larry Mason, was the subject of a rescue effort that included people from a host of emergency agencies in the area from three counties and two states, as well as a large group of family, neighbors and friends and the general public who were responding to a call for help.

When the nearly three-hour effort finally ended, Ramsey, who is 84 years olf, was weak and injured, but thanks to the efforts of as many as 100 people at the scene, he was alive.

The ordeal began on a rainy Thursday morning when Ramsey, a long-time employee of the farm who also lives just across the road from the acreage, was working with a crew putting corn into one of the large bins when he crawled inside one of the grain bins and began sinking into the corn.

Unable to free himself, and continuing to sink into the corn, Ramsey was apparently also unable to alert others working in the area that he had become trapped, due to other machinery that was being operated which was making enough noise as to prevent him from being heard.

When it was learned that Ramsey had become trapped inside the grain bin, Harlan Barnett, who was also working with the crew, said that all attention immediately turned toward attempting to not only getting Ramsey out of the bin, but more importantly, trying to keep the shifting corn from completely covering him, which would have quickly resulted in suffocation.

Barnett told the Clinton County News that as he understood how things transpired last Thursday morning, Ramsey told him that he had been trapped inside the bin, working to keep the moving grain from covering his head completely, for more than an hour before his co-workers discovered him inside the large, round metal bin.

A neighbor who came to the scene early in the rescue effort, Jerry Storie, worked tirelessly throughout the ordeal to remove corn from the ground with a tractor and front-end loader, as it was being scooped out of the grain bin by rescue crew members.

Storie also said that Ramsey had apparently been trapped in the grain bin for over an hour before he was discovered by co-workers.

Storie, who had been working to remove the grain by scooping from the outside door, described the scene inside the bin by making a funnel shaped figure with his arms, noting that Ramsey was trapped near the middle, in a low area, with the surrounding areas holding more corn.

As the corn was being removed, instead of Ramsey being able to be freed, the corn all around him would continue to fall in around his upper body and head.

“He told me he finally got his arms up above the corn, and just kept shoveling with his hand to get the corn off his face,” Storie said.

In an interview at the scene after he himself had been treated and checked out by emergency medical personnel as well as Dr. Larry Mason, Barnett said he then climbed inside the bin himself with Ramsey, and eventually was able to position himself behind the trapped victim, placing two large wooden boards behind them in an effort to keep the still shifting corn from completely covering them.

Barnett remained in that position, down in the grain, at times higher than his own waist, while waiting on emergency personnel to arrive and begin the rescue efforts, as well as throughout most of the entire two-hour rescue effort.

“We were loading corn and one of the work hands came running around and said ‘hurry, come quick, Ed’s in that bin’ so I went running around and looked in, and he was up to right here and it was caving in on him,” Barnett said, motioning with his hands up around his upper chest and neck area to describe how deep into the corn Ramsey had already sank.

Barnett said that he and the other farm crew members immediately began working to get Ramsey freed and to prevent him from sinking deeper, but their efforts weren’t making any progress and it was then that a call was made to Clinton County 9-1-1 and a host of local emergency personnel were dispatched to the scene.

In the meantime, Barnett said his and the other crew member’s efforts continued in hopes of keeping the shifting grain from completely covering Ramsey

“I climbed in behind him and we couldn’t get him out, so I told them to get me some boards and I put them behind him to hold it (the grain) off of him because it was going to cover him up,” Barnett said. “I swear, I thought it was going to cover him up and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.”

The efforts of the emergency crews eventually allowed Barnett to exit the grain bin after being inside for more than two hours, and once outside, because the circulation had been cut off for so long in his legs, he had trouble walking and had to be assisted to a nearby ambulance where he was given oxygen and treated for exhaustion.

Barnett was quick to praise the efforts of everyone who had been working to free Ramsey and himself, looking around at the large crowd of people who had been outside the grain bin that he was seeing for the first time.

“I’ll tell you what, these guys saved his butt today – and mine too,” Barnett said.

Albany Fire Chief Robert Roeper, said the call from dispatch to the fire department came in at about 9:20 a.m., and at that time, department members, as well as EMS crews, began heading to the scene.

“That’s the longest rescue effort I think we’ve ever been on,” an exhausted Roeper said after Ramsey had finally been removed from the bin.

With Roeper and Clinton County Disaster and Emergency Services Director Lonnie Scott directing the rescue efforts at the scene, the crews began working from a ground level access door in the bin to scoop the corn out onto the ground.

Working at a frantic pace, the fireman were literally down on the ground on their hands and knees, using both hands to scoop the corn from the area.

When the pile of corn would become so high that it began blocking the access door, fire department personnel would step back and allow Storie to come in with the tractor and front end loader, and pull the grain away from the area, at which point, the entire process would begin all over.

In the meantime, emergency workers had successfully removed another access door higher up, allowing them to go in and out to assist in the efforts to keep as much corn away from Ramsey as possible.

The additional access also allowed emergency crews to get inside and begin giving Ramsey medical assistance such as water, oxygen and being able to keep a close watch on his vital signs during the lengthy rescue process.

Emergency workers inside the grain bin would switch out with co-workers from time to time, and each time one would exit the bin, it was clearly evident the stress that the conditions inside were causing on the human body.

As time went on, and the process had spanned for more than an hour without any real progress being made as far as freeing Ramsey, the crowd of people at the scene was constantly growing, as additional emergency crews from neighboring areas began showing up, answering the call for more assistance.

In addition, a host of area land owners and neighbors as well as family and friends of Ramsey, began finding their way to the rescue scene, lending their help in any way needed.

After more than an hour had elapsed in the rescue effort, and it becoming clear that the grain wasn’t being removed fast enough, efforts began to cut additional holes in the side of the grain bin structure, using the emergency Jaws of Life equipment to cut several additional holes all around the perimeter.

In addition, another tractor with a hay fork on the front, was brought to the scene and used to punch and rip even more holes through the metal sides of the bin, allowing people to use their hands to begin removing the grain at a faster rate.

As men worked to remove corn from the bin, several women also joined the efforts, some passing out bottled water to exhausted workers while others spent time with Ramsey’s wife, who had been watching the entire rescue effort from her front yard, just a few feet from the grain bin where her husband was trapped.

One daughter, Anna Norris, arrived on the scene during the rescue effort, and was able to actually climb inside the grain bin to be with her father for awhile, offering him comfort and assurance, before she exited to be with her mother and other relatives.

At about 11:15 a.m., with progress apparently being made in successfully lowering the level of the corn inside the bin, Barnett emerged through the access door, using his arm to pull his body through the open panel and clearly in pain, was helped from the area to an awaiting ambulance and medical crew.

Just before 12:00 noon, the call to clear the access door came out, and lines on either side quickly formed to help pull the stretcher through the piled up corn and for the first time in the long ordeal, remove Ramsey from inside the grain bin that he had been trapped in.

Quickly moving him up the hill, he was placed inside the ambulance, and emergency medical crews as well as Dr. Mason, began checking Ramsey’s condition, before eventually transporting him to Livingston Regional Hospital for additional treatment.

In addition to the individuals who responded to assist in the rescue efforts, the Clinton County EMS and Albany Fire Department were eventually joined by the Pickett County EMS, Susie Fire Department, South Kentucky RECC and AirEvac Life Team.

Clinton County Emergency Services Director Lonnie Scott told the Clinton County News that overall he was very pleased with how things went in regards to Thursday’s rescue effort, all things considered.

When the call came in to the 9-1-1 center, the roads were wet from a drizzling rain that had been falling all morning, and the location of the grain bin itself was about as far as one can get from Albany and still be in Clinton County in that direction.

In fact, the responding emergency crews had to travel a short distance through Tennessee to get to the scene and also encountered a crew with a road construction project that also slowed response time somewhat.

“We had people from three counties, of course it’s right there on the lines and close to the other two counties,” Scott said. “I thought it went well – as good as could be expected, especially considering the location – it was a long way out there.”

Ramsey’s daughter, Anna Norris, told the Clinton County News on Tuesday of this week that she and her entire family are grateful for the work done by the emergency crews and volunteers who helped to free her father from the corn bin.

“It was just amazing,” Norris said.

She also noted that her father remains hospitalized with a host of problems related to last week’s incident.

She said that he had suffered a heart attack while entrapped in the corn, and that after being hospitalized, additional examinations had revealed that he had multiple blockages in arteries leading to his heart, that would require him to have open heart bypass surgery.

The surgery will be done in a few days when he begins regaining his strength.

With those blockages already in place, and the incident with the grain squeezing his upper and lower body likely causing the heart attack, Norris, keeping a positive attitude, said that it might be that this ordeal could actually have saved her father’s life in that now he knows about the blockages and can have surgery to correct them.

“This could have actually saved his life,” Norris said. “Really, he shouldn’t be here right now – it just wasn’t his time to go.”

Above, several men surrounded the stretcher that held Ed Ramsey as he was removed from a grain bin he had been trapped in last Thursday for more than three hours. Workers from several area emergency agencies, as well as a host of neighbors, family and friends, came together in the rescue effort to successfully get Ramsey out of the stored corn that nearly buried him completely.

At right, after spending nearly three hours inside a grain bin, attempting to keep stored corn from covering Ed Ramsey, co-worker Harlan Barnett emerged from the bin clearly shakened and weak. Above, Dr. Larry Mason, who owns the farm where the grain storage bin was located, checks Barnett’s vital signs. Ramsey was successfully removed from the bin about 20 minutes after Barnett exited.