“I spent 40 years of my life working in the agriculture business,” the Marianna native said.
Bright started sweeping the floors at J D Swearingen Equipment Co., where his mother worked, when he was 13. He worked his way up to managing the multimillion-dollar parts department for 28 years before the business closed in 2012.
--- VIDEO: BRIGHT TALKS ABOUT HIS LIFE
Bright loved his job of keeping farm machinery in top condition for farmers in the region — even after a horrific night in 1996 that changed his life forever.
“It was the longest night of my life — no doubt,” Bright said.
Bright clocked out from the parts department a little after 5 p.m. on Sept. 6 that year. He recalls taking a 30-minute
He was tasked with repairing a defunct hay baler with dirt caked up on the belt-driven rollers.
“I was trying to get the dirt off the rollers, which was packed on like concrete,” he said.
Bright thought he would let the machine do the work in grinding off the dirt buildup by holding a sheet of sandpaper against the roller as it ran.
“That’s how I got caught in the machine,” he said. “I was standing up inside of it sanding the rollers, and the sandpaper flew out of my hand.”
‘Fight to survive’
Bright’s impulse to reach for the runaway sandpaper caused his right hand to become lodged in the moving parts. The force of the moving rollers had stripped away Bright’s flesh and dug into his arm enough to keep him from being able to pull his arm loose from the running machine.
“The biggest thing that came through my mind was to fight to survive,” he said.
In that moment, Bright knew he could get the machine to stop if he could trip the built-in safety mechanism.
“I started stuffing my shoes and pants and took my shirt off to use anything to try and jam the machine to
Bright was left standing in his underwear with the machine still grinding on his arm. He then took off the two socks he had left and used one to tie off each arm as he bled from both hands.
--- VIDEO: BRIGHT TALKS ABOUT HIS LIFE
“For the next twelve-and-a-half hours, I kept the tourniquets tight with my teeth,” he said. “That’s how I kept from bleeding to death.”
Bright said death was all he could see after the failed attempt to jam the hay baler in a building that was secluded from anyone who might hear his screams.
His mind raced with thoughts of the three children he’d raised on his own since they were all preschool-age and prayed they would be taken care of if he didn’t survive.
“And you can believe this,” he said. “Right after I said that prayer, I felt angel’s wings wrapped around my body, and I felt the most comfort I have ever felt.”
Bright said the sensation of comfort was so overwhelming that his physical pain faded into the back of his mind. Through the rest of the night, Bright kept himself conscious by touching the side of his face to the cold metal interior wall of the machine that had been chilled by the unusually low temperature that night.
“The machine was still running and eating on me, and I
Rescued
Bright was discovered by
Lane stopped the hay baler and dislodged Bright’s hand by cutting the rollers loose. He rushed Bright to
Bright was reeling from all that had happened after he woke up from the procedure. An orthopedic hand surgeon was waiting to give Bright the good news that he wasn’t going to die from his injuries, but he wasn’t out of the woods.
The doctor told Bright the damage to his right hand was permanent and he’d never use it again in a normal fashion. Bright had two choices: a future of multiple surgeries that would most likely leave him with a limp hand, or he could go ahead with an amputation.
“In my mind, I pictured what he was talking about with all of those surgeries to have to go through and then to end up with something I couldn’t use,” Bright said. “So I just told him to take it off.”
Bright’s hand was amputated, but he was back at work just 45 days later.
“I’m a strong-willed person. I was dying to get back to work,” he said.
It was peanut harvesting time, the company’s busiest time of year for parts and service, so Bright didn’t waste a minute feeling sorry for himself.
‘Fortunate and blessed’
Bright returned to work with a prosthetic hook where his right hand once was. In the years that followed, workers’ compensation helped Bright and provided different models of prosthetic hands that allowed him to get back to some type of normalcy.
Two months ago, Bright traded up from the standard robotic hand he’d been using to the
“This is designed just like a human hand with joints in it just like regular fingers,” Bright said. He demonstrated the hand’s ability to mimic natural human hand movements.
The Michelangelo model uses all fingers and a fully articulated thumb to perform different grips, unlike its predecessors. Sensors inside the arm cuff respond to Bright’s movements to instinctively know if he wants to open or close the hand, or change his grip for a task.
--- VIDEO: BRIGHT TALKS ABOUT HIS LIFE
Bright said workers’ compensation made a giant leap from providing a basic electronic prosthetic hand that costs about $12,000 to making him one of the few people in North America to own the Michelangelo Hand, which was developed in 2008 and became available first in
Today, Bright can honestly say he’s still good with his hands.
“I love working on things,” he said. “I feel fortunate and blessed.”