Farmer mauled by bull embraced by MN community

ZUMBROTA, Minn. -- Mike Lohmann walks through the large free-stall barn on his farm with only a hint of the pain he still feels. It's been more than four months since he nearly died here after being mauled by a bull. .

"He just came after me for some reason I don't know," says the 47-year-old farmer. It was just after morning milking and Mike had his back to the bull.

"1800 pounds he weighed." Nearly a ton that came head-first at Mike before he could even react. "He got me in the back first -- spine area. I thought I broke my back right away. I fell right down."

Stunned, Mike got back on his feet and tried to move away, "and he came around and got me in the front then, got me in the ribs and everything."

The bull retreated. Mike figures the bull thought he was dead. Mike pulled out his cell phone and called his son Jesse, who only needed to hear the word "bull" to know his dad was in trouble.

Within minutes Mike was on his way to the hospital in Red Wing, with his daughter-in-law at the wheel. Just a few miles down the road Mike realized he couldn't breathe. An ambulance was dispatched. Mike lost consciousness shortly after being loaded inside it. He woke up the next morning in the trauma ICU at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, where he was flown by a Mayo medical helicopter.

The damage was massive. "Eleven broken ribs, punctured lung, collapsed lung; cracked my spine in three places."

Mike's three sons, his relatives and neighbors have been helping keep the farm going during Mike's three-and-a-half weeks in the hospital and his long recovery at home since.

Things hadn't exactly been going swimmingly on the farm before the accident. Last year a fire destroyed a machine shed on Mike's farm, taking with it much of his machinery and tools. Like all dairy farmers he's also been struggling through months of milk prices below the cost of production.

Mike's wife Wendy tears up thinking about it. "You work a lifetime and something so out of control from what you love so much, is part of what takes it away from you."

Which is why Wendy and Mike Lohmann so appreciate the benefit planned for them Saturday, November 21, at the VFW in Zumbrota. A dinner is planned at 4:00 p.m. with music and dancing until midnight.

A fund has also been established for Mike Lohmann at the Bank of Zumbrota, P.O. Box 8, Zumbrota, MN 55922.

"I've got the best friends and family you could ask for." That mike will tell you is no bull.

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