Family: Sikeston man trapped in grain elevator doing well

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- A tragedy was narrowly avoided Monday when a New Madrid man was rescued from a grain bin.

Employees of the New Madrid Grain company were loading grain trucks from Bobby LaValle's grain bin located on Bloomfield Road when the grain stopped moving. James Robert Stanley, 48, and Bobby Joe Stanley, 35, of New Madrid got in the bin to clear the obstruction.

James Robert Stanley got out to bring another grain truck while Bruce Robinson, 51, of New Madrid, joined the younger Stanley brother in the bin. Not too long after, Robinson ran into trouble. "The grain started going really well and he just started sinking," said Bobby Joe Stanley. "Soybeans started covering him up."

In seconds, Robinson's head was about four inches under the soybeans, according to Stanley.

Robinson's co-workers dug in the grain and tried to reach Robinson but soon realized he was seriously trapped and, at a little after 10 a.m., called 911.

The initial report was that three victims were trapped in the grain bin, said Jim Harris, chief of the New Madrid Fire Department. "One of them was a lot deeper in the soybeans -- he was up to his neck. The other two were up to their waist. One of them got out pretty quick with just a little help."

Robinson, however, was a different matter. Sgt. Tom Conn of Sikeston DPS said Robinson was under three feet of grain when he arrived on the scene.

Prevented by authorities from approaching any closer to the grain bin than a couple of hundred yards until the rescue was nearly complete, Robinson's family members, including his mother, Mary Jarrett of New Madrid; his 25-year old daughter, Latoyia Robinson; and his fiancee, Karen Bunch, endured hours in the chill wind waiting for information on his condition.

"He's OK," Paul Meacham of the New Madrid Police Department assured during one of the updates. "He's fine: they re talking to him."

A few minutes later Meacham added: "He is conscious and doing well -- he is breathing on his own."

Vacuum trucks supplied by Associated Electric and Noranda arrived on the scene and were used to remove enough soybeans from around the trapped victim.

Robinson was finally removed from the grain bin at about 2:37 p.m. and taken by Air Evac helicopter to Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.

Upon being removed, he was alert and talking to the EMS personnel, Harris said.

Tuesday morning Robinson was in intensive care.

"He is doing fine," said Robinson's stepdaughter, Elizabeth Huffman of Benton, Mo.