A split-second act of instinct has been credited with saving the life of a Queensland farmer after a gruesome machinery accident left him bleeding out in a paddock.

Clive Weier, 89, had been doing a job he’d done hundreds of times before on his Mondure property, northwest of Brisbane, on March 30, 2025, when everything went wrong.

Believing the auger had been shut off, Weier reached into the combine harvester attachment to clear some oats, unaware it had only jammed.

“I put my finger to scratch a bit of stuff away… and all of a sudden it unjammed and took off again, and tore my hand off,” he said.

He looked down to a devastating sight.

“All I had was my bones hanging there and my hand was gone and there was bleeding,” he said.

By chance, neighbour Graham Terry was right there.

“I was helping him grade oats… standing beside the machine,” Terry recalled.

“He got his hand caught in it and jumped back with his bone sticking out… it wouldn’t have been a second.”

In an instant, the farmer’s right arm was severed below the elbow, and his neighbour reacted just as quickly.

“I clamped my hands around his arms, put him against the wheel, sat him down and held his arm,” Terry said.

Clive’s son Leigh called triple-0 and applied a tourniquet as the pair worked to keep him alive.

“I knew I needed to stop the bleeding and get him comfortable,” Terry said.

“I couldn’t stop his pain… I could only stop his bleeding.”

Terry said he did a first aid course “about 35–40 years ago”, but his quick thinking came just down to instinct, he said.

‘He would have bled to death’

When the LifeFlight crew arrived, the situation was critical.

“He was bleeding heavily. His wife tells me that his boots were filled with blood,” critical care doctor Daniel Bundock, who was part of the LifeFlight crew who transported the farmer to hospital, said.

“You probably don’t want to see the injury. It was quite gruesome.”

Bundock said without the immediate action of Terry and his son, the outcome would likely have been fatal.

“What Clive’s son and his neighbour did saved his life. Undisputably.”

“If they’d not stopped the bleeding, Clive would have bled to death.

“Clive’s a pretty lucky man.”

Weier was stabilised at the scene before being flown to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital for emergency surgery.

‘I’ve got to get on with life’

More than a year on, the veteran farmer has since recovered, and back to work — as a left-hander. Weier said he had to relearn to do everything with his left hand.

“I get up, I can dress myself, I can get my boots on, I can go and feed my chooks and collect my eggs,” he said.

“I had to learn to boil the kettle… do some toast… put Vegemite on it.”

But his mindset has never wavered.

“It’s happened. I’ve got to live with it, and I can’t do nothing about it,” he said.

“I’ve got to think positive and I’ve got to get on with my life.

“I can’t bury my head in the sand and think I can’t do this and I can’t do that.”

Now, both men are urging others — especially in regional areas — to learn basic trauma skills.

They are organising a First Minutes Matter workshop for his local community through LifeFlight’s free trauma training program.

“It’s essential… you never know when it’s going to happen,” Terry said.

Bundock agrees, warning those crucial first minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

“In an emergency, every second counts,” he said.