A parent’s worst fear

NEW MUNICH, Minn. — Herman Massmann and his son, Casper, have spent lots of time doing farm chores together on their 75-cow dairy. After an accident nearly two years ago, they are thankful they are still together to continue those chores.

In December 2024, shortly after Christmas, 9-year-old Casper was tagging along with his dad while grinding feed. Herman was taking out corn from a nearly full 10,000-bushel grain bin while Casper was in a bin.

“That was my mistake,” Herman said. “I will never do that again.”

At one point, after Herman yelled up to check on Casper, he heard Casper call back that he needed help. Herman shut off the auger and raced up the grain bin to check on Casper. When Herman peered into the bin, all he could see were Casper’s face and elbows.

Casper was assumed to be on top of the corn in the middle of the bin when the corn pulled him down.

“My first reaction was that I almost killed my son,” Herman said. “I hopped in, and the corn actually completely buried [Casper] for a minute. I had to uncover his face again.”

Herman lay around Casper while he started to push corn back. He used his body and his jacket as a barrier to keep the corn from falling back down towards Casper’s face. At the same time, Herman called 911 and then his wife, Jackie.

“[Casper] said to me, he thought he was going to die,” Herman said. “I said, not today, help is on the way.”

“When Dad laid next to me, that made me feel safe,” Casper said.

Twenty minutes after the call, first responders from two separate local departments arrived on scene. Two rescuers climbed in the bin and threw a rope down to Herman and Casper. Then the rescue workers started bringing 4-foot metal panels into the bin that are designed to be inserted into the corn around the entrapped person to create a smaller area for rescuers to work.

“[Casper] asked twice if it was going to cost a lot of money [to rescue him],” Herman said. “I said it doesn’t matter how much money it’s going to cost, your life is worth any amount of money.”

Rescuers were able to move enough corn away from Casper to expose his chest. At that time, they asked Herman to leave the bin so they could get more metal panels around Casper to remove the rest of the corn.

“At that point, I climbed out of the grain bin, and that’s when it hit me, and I just broke down,” Herman said.

A neighboring farming family, Curt, Cory and Melvin Feldewerd, brought over a grain vac to suck out about 500 bushels. They had to go through the top of the bin, as they were afraid going through the side would suck Casper down further.

“Seeing all the people that were there for the rescue, I knew he was going to be OK,” Herman said. “But it was still tough waiting outside while they continued to work in the bin.”

The entire rescue took about two hours, and when Casper was pulled out, his body temp was 96 degrees. Paramedics on site said the compression of the corn can make your body create a toxin that can kill the victim, so a helicopter was called in to take Casper to Minnesota Children’s Hospital.

Herman rode in the helicopter with Casper while Jackie drove by vehicle. Once in the helicopter, Casper was hooked up to an IV and once they got to the hospital, a heater was put on the IV to raise his internal body temperature. By the time Jackie arrived, Casper was being cleared to go home. Casper never suffered any injuries from the incident.

“It felt good to get home again that night,” Casper said.

Looking back on the incident is hard for the Massmanns, but they know the importance of sharing their farm safety story.

“Every time I walked past that grain bin I thought of the accident,” Herman said. “As time went on, it got easier [to talk about]. To get over something like this, you have to talk about it.”

“I [told Casper] it was all my fault, not his,” Herman said.

Farm safety is now always on the mind of Massmanns, and they are thankful their incident turned out the way it did.

“It was scary as hell,” Herman said. “I was praying the whole time I was in there. I thank God every day for not taking him. We are forever grateful for the Melrose and Freeport fire departments.”