On January 11, 1992, John Thompson was unloading pig feed with a grain auger and playing with the dog when he somehow got too close to the power takeoff shaft, which didn't have a safety shield. "My shirt wasn't tucked in, and they figure my shirt got wrapped up in the PTO shaft. And yeah, I still remember spinning on the shaft," he said. Thompson blacked out and awoke to his dog licking his face and the realization that his arms were gone. He says the only pain he really felt was when the exposed nerve hanging down his right side knocked against something. But he was starting to get dizzy. After getting his arms reattached by surgeon Dr. Allen Van Beek (a 1966 University of North Dakota graduate) at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, he was put into a coma for four weeks so he could heal. Thompson nearly died of a blood infection and endured more surgery and intensive rehabilitation but eventually recovered. More rare photos: