ALLENDALE, Mich. — A West Michigan man is finally back at home after spending 49 days recovering from a massive explosion that leveled the barn behind his family home.
After spending 49 days first in Corewell Health, and then Mary Free Bed, he was discharged Friday.
Back on the evening of December 23, Carl Beintema had just got home from work, when he decided to go spend some time in his barn, located just behind the home he shares with his wife Ashleigh and two daughter on 52nd Ave. in Allendale.
The snow was coming down hard.
Carl was working on putting together a wood splitter, when he was called back inside for dinner.
"I wanted to go finish it, and I had the lights on and everything, So I was like, 'Alright, I'm going out,'" Carl recalled.
But it wasn't but a minute or two before something happened.
"Put my earplugs in, I grabbed my safety glasses, grabbed some leather gloves, and I don't think I hit that grinder for half a minute... and all of a sudden, it was just a boom."
An explosion rocked the barn he was in— a boom that could be heard all around their neighborhood.
"I could see the explosion in front of me, and it picked me up and threw me back," he remembered.
"I hit my head, and I might have blacked out for a quick second."
Carl's wife was inside, putting their two young daughters to bed when it happened.
"I was picking our little one up and bringing her to her bed, and as I stood up, I seen it. It was a very bright orange, yellow light,” she explained.
“I grabbed my boots and I took off. As soon as I got to that back slider door, I screamed as loud as I could, and I could hear him.”
Carl was screaming as well— mostly conscious after the explosion that happened inches from his face.
“I just went up behind him and grabbed him... grabbed him behind the shoulders, and yanked and as hard as I could, and pulled and pulled and pulled."
Smaller explosions were still going off around them, but she pulled as hard as she could physically muster.
"I dislocated, and I broke his shoulder getting him out," she remembers. "He's my person... I would run into a burning barn for him any day, which sounds insane, but like, nobody deserves to be there."
As she was dragging her husband through the snow, one of their neighbors appeared by her side to help.
Around this time, police dispatchers began receiving calls from people who heard the barn blow up.
“We have multiple reports of an explosion, we have a barn that's currently on fire with a male injured and still inside," a dispatcher said over the police radio. "His leg is missing at this time.”
Just minutes later, Ottawa County Deputy Joe Rohloff showed up as well.
"And that's when Carl chimed in, like, 'Hey, I know, go get the sled, go get the kids' sled,'" Ashleigh explained. "And I was like, 'What?'"
Even in his state, Carl suggested that his wife and Deputy Rohloff put him in one of their daughter's purple sleds to get him through the snow easier.
So, that's what they did.
"He was talking me through things and being helpful, and I think that that just gave me a lot of motivation to get him out," Ashleigh said.
Deputy Rohloff applied a tourniquet to slow Carl's bleeding in one of his legs, and then applied another to his other leg.
Emergency medical personnel began showing up on scene, doing what they could to try and save Carl's life.
At some point, another tourniquet was applied to one of Carl's arms.
"The trauma surgeons at Spectrum (Corewell) Hospital said Carl is here today because of the actions of Deputy Rohloff and this little piece of equipment," Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Kempker later recalled about the night.
On January 24, Deputy Rohloff was honored by the Sheriff in front of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.
"It's my honor, on behalf of the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, myself, our staff members, to present you with the Life Saving Award for your actions on this day," Sheriff Kempker said.
Carl and Ashleigh then popped up on a television screen in the room, up on a livestream from his hospital room.
"Our family is forever thankful for the selfless act that you did for us without thinking twice," Ashleigh told Deputy Rohloff. "And we can't wait to see you again in person, to thank you for all that you've done, and all that you continue to do."
Carl had to be sedated and intubated for six days once he arrived at Corewell Health's emergency room. He remained in the ICU for a total of nine days.
Ashleigh had to make some difficult decisions while Carl was unconscious— having to make the final call on whether to amputate Carl's right leg just above the knee.
Once he was finally awake, Ashleigh recalls, “He just kept saying, 'pick my leg up, put a pillow under it.' And I was looking at the doctor, like, do I tell him? Do I wait, you know, like, how do we tell him?”
She told him, and Carl was unbothered.
“Well, that's fine," he said. "As long as I'm here, that's fine... I'd rather be alive."
As Ashleigh put it with a big smile, "such a Carl move.”
Eventually, Carl was moved to Mary Free Bed to begin the process of relearning how to live his life.
“I still have a chance to do what I want to do, so I'm gonna go after them, and I'm going to achieve,” Carl told FOX 17 during his last week at Mary Free Bed.
An infection near his amputation site temporarily sent him back to Corewell, but his condition continued to improve when he got back to rehabilitation.
“If you asked me way back when I saw him in Corewell,'Would he get this far this quick?' I didn't think so, but he impressed me,” said Benjamin Bruinsma, M.D., Chief of Staff at Mary Free Bed.
Every day at Mary Free Bed, Carl would wake up early, and began focusing on maintaining a positive outlook.
“It happened to me, I can't go back," he told FOX 17. "The only thing I can do is move forward from here, And that's the way I want to try to look at it.”
They eventually got the chance to meet Deputy Rohloff in person, when he stopped by Mary Free Bed during some of Carl's last days of therapy.
"Seriously, I don't know how much thanks I can give you man, for saving my life," Carl told him in between hand shakes and hugs.
The three of them shared memories of the night when Carl nearly lost his life.
"You two are the most calm people I've seen on a situation like that," Deputy Rohloff told them.
Incredibly, Carl's uncle, Jim, actually had his left leg amputated about six months ago.
He was injured after being hit by a truck while riding his motorcycle.
"I gave him a heads up on what to expect," Jim told FOX 17.
It took an incredible amount of work for Carl to learn new ways to do everything, and to strengthen his injured body, but he persevered.
He credits the experienced staff at Mary Free Bed, and their persistent positivity.
"I can get into a chair from here, I can get onto the toilet, I can take a shower, and get into a car," Carl said during his last week at Mary Free Bed. "Without them I wouldn't have figured all that out... it takes so much time."
On Thursday, Carl went through his final day of therapy at Mary Free Bed.
"I feel good about being home with my daughters and my wife, definitely great there, but the rest of it, it's gonna be another learning curve," he said. "I take take it day-by-day, but definitely feel like a new person."
If everything continues healing as it should, Carl should be able to get a prosthetic leg fitted by the end of the year.
For now, his family has built a wooden ramp going from the family's garage into their home, and installed a number of items throughout the house to help with his independence.
"It's definitely made me stronger in a lot of ways," Carl said.
He was given a warm goodbye from the staff at Mary Free Bed as he left.
Several police cruisers and Sheriff's Deputies were at his home as he pulled in their driveway— family and friends waving handmade posters in the air.
"Just knowing that there is a tomorrow... whether he has two legs, or one leg, no legs, he's my person," Ashleigh said. "And so, we get tomorrow."
The Beintema Family started a Gofundme after Carl was injured to help with his medical costs.
You can still donate to their fundraising campaign by clickingHERE.
