Teen farmer badly burned and loses arm in near-fatal electrocution, Texas family says

A Texas teenager is recovering after he was badly burned and lost an arm in a near-fatal farming accident, his family says.

Braycin Parrish, 17, was electrocuted while working in a peanut field Oct.2, his uncle, Michael Batson, said in a Facebook post.

“Braycin died in that peanut field after taking 69kv into his body,” Batson said, but “his boss saved his life with CPR.”

“He’s lost an arm, toes and lots of skin and we aren’t even sure it’s over yet. The amount of pain this young man has been thru it’s absolutely unreal. But guess what, he’s alive,” the Oct. 11 post read.

The Hamilton teen’s family says he’s hospitalized in Dallas with injuries so severe his doctors are surprised he survived, KWTX reported Nov. 25.

Braycin was in the middle of harvesting peanuts when the buggy attached to his tractor touched an electrical line, electrocuting him and setting him on fire, the station reported.

“He was dead. For how many minutes? Only God knows,” Braycin’s father, Blain Parrish, told KWTX.

Blain Parrish said his son was on the ground, surrounded by fire and not breathing when his boss found him, the station reported. A helicopter landed in the field, picked Braycin up and flew him to a hospital.

Braycin was alive, but the accident inflicted severe damage.

“The first miracle that God performed was to save Braycin‘s life,” his great-grandfather, Bryan Parrish, said in a series of Facebook posts following the 17-year-old’s progress.

Doctors tried to restore circulation to Braycin’s left arm, and while they were successful, they ultimately determined they couldn’t save it. Braycin underwent a “long complicated surgery to remove his arm,” the great-grandfather said.

He’s also undergone skin grafts, according to his great-grandfather, saying Braycin is “in much pain.”

But despite the pain and life-changing injuries, Braycin’s fight to recover hasn’t slowed. In videos shared to TikTok by his dad, Braycin is seen walking, going outside and once again wearing “real clothes” instead of bandages and hospital gowns.

His farming days are far from over, he told KWTX.

“I may have to change the way I do it or it may be a little slower, but I’ll get it done and I’ll learn how to make it faster if I need to,” Braycin told the news outlet.

He’ll be able to leave the hospital by Friday, Nov. 29, the station reported, just in time to make it to a charity roping event being held in his honor the next day at the Circle T Arena in Hamilton.

“God was there watching over me,” he told the station. “If not, I think I would have been worse without God. Yeah, I don’t think I’d be alive without him.”

Hamilton is a roughly 100-mile drive southwest from Fort Worth.

This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 11:48 AM with the headline "Teen farmer badly burned and loses arm in near-fatal electrocution, Texas family says."