Nov 9, 2007 8:06 am US/Central
Man Loses Leg In Flood, Changes Outlook On Life
MINNESOTA CITY, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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Dick Hengel's leg was amputated after he cut it trying to escape rising floodwaters in southeastern Minnesota in August.
CBS
It was
still dark outside that Sunday morning Dick Hengel woke up to the sounds of
water rushing into his basement bedroom.
"When I put my
foot on the floor, I felt water," he recalled. "Right away, I
panicked."
He tried to make to
the door but the foundation caved in and the water pushed him back.
The window was his
only exit.
He broke it and
crawled through to the outside where he grabbed onto to his grandson's kiddie
pool. It wasn't until he tried to stand up that he realized he had slashed his
leg on the jagged glass of the window.
He kicked his
way to a neighbor's house several hundred feet away. Another
neighbor watched helplessly from his own roof and yelled to call attention to
Hengel.
"I heard some
hollering from across the street. It was him and his legs were cut up real bad.
He was bleeding all over the place," said John Shea.
When he reached his
neighbor's front door, he banged on the door. That neighbor had just gotten his wife to their roof and struggled with
Hengel.
"He told me if
he couldn't get me up there, he wasn't going to go either," Hengel said.
He covered him in
blankets and lifted him onto a chair.
Hengel's bloody leg was still
in the water. They watched as a rescue boat filled with people passed by.
He ended up sitting
in the dirty water for more than a half hour.
That's the last
thing Hengel really remembers before waking up in the hospital five days later,
with his left leg amputated from the knee down.
"I'm told that
we lost seven people and I've been told that I probably should have been number
eight," he said from his Minnesota
City home Thursday
afternoon.
It was the first
time he'd visited up close since the floods destroyed his and hundreds of other
homes in southeastern Minnesota
in August.
He brought his
wife, sister, pastor and two of his three daughters, who have helped the 61-year-old
newspaper delivery carrier through the difficult times.
"I had three
bad weeks where I cried. I couldn't talk to anyone without crying," Hengel
said.
Eventually friends
and family helped him pull through.
Hengel's Uncle Mick was
especially helpful with his jokes.
"My Uncle Mick
would come in and joke with me that all I could do was walk in circles and save
money on socks and shoes," Hengel laughed.
He maintains his
sense of humor and is grateful for the help and well-wishes from strangers.
Dozens visited him
during his hospital stay and now volunteers are helping Hengel and his wife
rebuild their home.
"I'm a changed
person, believe me, I am. We learned that there's a lot of good people,
beautiful people and it took this, this event for me to understand," he
said.
He hopes to move
back into his house by spring and by then, he should have a prosthetic
leg.
"I'm going to
walk in. Two legs. Like everyone else," he said.
FEMA and the state
of Minnesota
did give Hengel and his wife some money, but it's not enough to rebuild. He
was also recently denied disability.
You can help his
family by sending donations to the following address.
Richard Hengel
Special Flood
Account
Winona National
BankP.O. Box 499Winona, MN 55987
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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