By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
A 64-year-old man whose tractor ran over him Wednesday is doing fine a relative says.
Perry Lee Kurfees, of 1675 Gheen Road, was working on his tractor trying to jumpstart the battery when it ran over his chest area.
His cousin, Linda Nichols Messick, said Kurfees has five broken ribs, a punctured lung and cuts and bruises.
Despite those injuries “he’s doing excellent,” she said from her Messick Road home.
Kurfees was working on the tractor at 190 Messick Road, where he and his wife, Katrina, are moving.
Messick said he’s often found “piddling” with his tractor or backhoe.
He tried to charge the battery because the tractor would not start, she explained.
Kurfees apparently didn’t realize the tractor was in gear. The tractor ran over his right arm and across his chest.
Katrina was at work in Mocksville when the accident happened.
A neighbor, who’d just left Kurfees, was walking back to his house when Kurfees called him on his Nextel.
Messick said Kurfee always carries the Nextel his wife gave him in the front bib of his overalls.
When the neighbor returned, the tractor was a little ways off and Kurfees was sitting in his driveway. His hand was bloody.
Messick said the family believed the tractor dragged Kurfees a bit because “his overalls were torn.”
“He was sitting with his hand on his chest,” she said.
The neighbor reached Messick, who dialed 911. Afterward, she retrieved some towels to sop up the blood from Kurfees’ hand.
She said he was conscious the entire time while waiting for rescue workers. He complained of not being able to breathe.
“He talked to us,” she said.
Kurfees was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast.