Today in history: emotional conclusion for the teenager after traumatic agriculture – Inforum

At that time in 1992, John Thompson, teenager from North Dakota, returned with his class after surviving a terrible farm accident that broke both arms. He sang “a moment” to be ovation and national media attention and marked a strong milestone in his remarkable recovery.

Here is the complete story that appeared in the newspaper that day:

From Tom Pantera

Bowdon, ND – John Thompson sang on Sunday at his high school.

After telling his nine classmates: “I will never pay you back,” Thompson faced the amount of about 400 and sang “for a moment in time”. He received standing ovation from the crowd and long, tearful hugs from members of his class.

It was the latest chapter in a story that was made aware of worldwide at the beginning of this year.

Thompson, 18, son of Larry and Karen Thompson from Hurdsfield, ND, worked alone on the family farm on January 11th, when he fell into a power start, who threw him around and both arms demolition on the shoulder on the left. He ran 100 meters to his house, opened a front door with his mouth, stepped into the door into the cave and picked up a pencil in his mouth to help her on a touch-tone phone. Then he sat in the bathtub so that he would not bleed on the carpet while he was waiting for paramedics.

He was taken to a hospital in Harvey and then flown to the North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, where both arms were called again that night.

He stayed in the hospital until February 25 when he was flown home. Since then he has undergone physiotherapy in Harvey and returned to Twin Cities to examine periodic studies. He is planned for the operation on Saturday when doctors remove a muscles in the back to create a left biceps and take bone transplants from his hip to accelerate healing in his arms.

Like seniors in the spring, Thompson entered the Bowdon High School high school for the tribes of “pomp and circumstance”. He was the eighth of nine seniors to take the stage (a tenth fell sick shortly before the ceremony and stayed in the back of the gym).

The first mention of his accident came from Kristen Fike, co-salutatorian of the classes, whose speech mentioned each of their classmates. “John,” she said to him, “you made this one year that nobody will ever forget.”

The end was strongly covered by the media from to the twin cities. The Rev. John Bushell started his opening speech by turning to the reporters who were sitting in the back of the crowd, and said: “I am happy to see the press”, a comment that the audience giggles.

Bushell said he had a ball for the media: “In the final class of Bowdon High School from 1992 there are 10 of the world's biggest miracles.”

After the ceremony, Karen Thompson said her son was “very, very nervous. It is a big step for him – not only the end, but he is leaving a safety ceiling. His friends were 100 percent for him. It was hard.”

His solo performance was the most worrying part, she said. “I was really glad that he got through because I know that he would be disappointed if he couldn't.”

John Thompson sings “a moment” when the classmate Michelle Weipppert holds her feelings back.

Thompson plans to visit Mary University in Bismarck to study music. He will spend most of the summer in the Twin Cities, where he will undergo rehabilitation in the Courage Center.

Thompson refused to speak to reporters either before or immediately after the ceremony when he was busy accepting congratulations in a reception line.

When he appeared out of his car to go to school, he was greeted by a battery of television cameras. It was visibly uncomfortable when a reporter asked him how he felt, he replied: “Lay”.

After that, a reporter jokingly said to Thompson that it would probably be the last time that he would receive such close media attention.

“Yes,” he replied dryly, “I was looking forward to it.”