HARPERSFIELD TOWNSHIP - - A woman lost an arm to a piece of farm machinery Monday morning after her sleeve was caught by the arm of a tractor's power take-off.

Alice Vervais, owner of Shimandle Farm, 6095 Route 307, was preparing an industrial insecticide sprayer to treat the farm's crop of grapes when the power take-off grabbed the sleeve of her T-shirt and severed her arm at the shoulder, neighbor and tenant Alice Cole said.

A power take-off (PTO) is a splined driveshaft, usually on a tractor or truck, which draws energy from a tractor's engine to provide power to an attachment or separate machine, like an insecticide sprayer.

Cole said Vervais was conscious and talking when Northwest Ambulance District paramedics arrived on the scene.

"Thank God her brother was with her. They tied up the wound fast, so she didn't lose a lot of blood," Cole said. "We were all thankful to hear her talking."

The Harpersfield Volunteer Fire Department arrived on scene shortly after Vervais was transported by ambulance to UH-Geneva Medical Center. She then was transferred by medical helicopter to Cleveland MetroHealth Medical Center, Cole said.

One firefighter said he is afraid doctors will not be able to reattach Vervais' arm because of the severity of the wound and the condition of the detached arm.

Cole shares that fear.

"(The arm) was in bad shape, and the wound at (Vervais') shoulder was shredded and torn up. I don't know how the doctors would be able to reattach (the arm)," she said.

The National Safety Council Web site reports a power take-off turning at 540 revolutions per minute easily can entangle 5 to 7 feet of clothing per second.

"When a piece of clothing, which can be as small as a single thread, touches a spinning part, it can be pulled around the part. The clothing and the person wearing it are pulled into the shaft, often resulting in (a) loss of limb or death," the NSC Web site reports.

"Some implements do use plastic guards to try to keep a person from becoming entangled in a PTO shaft, but even with guards, people need to exercise caution around PTO shafts when they are plugged into a tractor," the report reads.

- - MARGIE TRAX PAGE - Staff Writer

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