A 52-year-old Ohio farmer without arms who rose to fame on YouTube for operating machinery with his feet has passed tragically from an aneurysm.
On September 21, Thomas Andrew “Andy” Detwiler of Urbana, close to Columbus, passed away from an aneurysm that developed after he acquired pneumonia. He was also receiving esophageal cancer treatment.
The day before he died, Andy’s wife Corkey noticed that he had started to “breathe strange,” she claimed in an emotional farewell video.
He was identified as having pneumonia and low blood sugar levels when the couple arrived at the hospital the next day.
He claimed to feel better after medical personnel were able to level it out, but then sat up straight and gasped in pain, according to Corkey.
‘He couldn’t catch his breath, he was looking at me terrified,’ Corkey said in the video. ‘He couldn’t speak.’
He would need to be intubated, and they intended to transport him to a hospital in Springfield, but before they could put him in the ambulance, he “crashed.”
‘He died in Urbana,’ Corkey said, her voice thick with emotion. Despite Detwiler’s missing arms – which were lost in a childhood farming accident – he didn’t let his disabilities stop him.
On July 18, 1972, Andy, at two years old, lost both of his arms. Bick Detwiler, who was running a grain auger, would frequently reach back to the auger to check the moisture content of the wheat.
As the farmer, who had been close and had been observing, wanted to imitate his grandfather, he slipped into the spiral-shaped drill when he attempted to stick his hand inside the auger.
Andy’s arms had been removed by the time his grandfather was able to free him.
The young child survived his lengthy hospital stay of five weeks, went on to adulthood, and eventually had his own daughter, Kylie, who was frequently featured in his YouTube videos.
Patricia, his mother, once described the moment she realised that young Andy would be well without his father.
‘It landed perfectly on him,’ she said in a 2019 YouTube video. ‘From that moment on, I knew he’d be okay.’
