× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

A man who farms near Pender, Nebraska, went to extraordinary lengths to save his life after his left leg became trapped in a machine on his farm.

In the early afternoon of April 19, Kurt Kaser, a lifelong corn, soybean and hog farmer, was transferring grain from one bin to another when he stepped into a grain auger. The machine ate away at his left leg and sucked the 63-year-old toward the machine.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said Tuesday. “I was afraid it was going to suck me in more. I about gave up and let it do what it was going to do.”

Kaser was alone on the farm that day. His cellphone either fell into the machine or fell out someplace else. On the 1,500-acre farm, yelling would do no good.

So he pulled out his 3-inch pocket knife and hacked away at his leg.

“I have had other incidences. I try to hold my cool or figure out how to make the situation better at the time,” he said. “It’s hard to describe. You want to survive and you do what you need to do to survive, I guess.”

Kaser saw the machine remove his foot from his body and continue to tear away at his flesh. About 8 inches below his knee, he found the smallest connection of tissue and determined that it was his best chance to free himself.