Farmer honors doctor who helped save his life with symbolic gesture at daughter's wedding

Reason Swafford was helping his neighbor in Richmond, Missouri, move a barn when it fell on his left leg in June 2025. He broke his femur, cut his femoral artery and almost bled to death.

Swafford has also suffered multiple infections since that fateful day, and didn't think he was going to live.

I had a 5% chance of survival," he said.

I said [to his wife] you can tell the kids, 'I love them,' and I love you, and I will see you on the other side one of these days," Swafford said. "She grabbed my thumbs and very sternly said, You are going to make it. Do you understand me? Youre going to fight.

He had to have his left leg amputated in January. Afterwards, he made it a goal to be able to walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day despite his physical setbacks.

Swafford said his faith brought him to University Health, where he was cared for by Dr. Peter Everson and Dr. David Shanberg.

It was totally a God thing," Swafford said. "He placed those gentlemen here. 

Swafford says he formed an instant friendship with Everson.

This is the guy that didnt give up on me," Swafford said.

As Swafford walked his daughter down the aisle, he said it was a full-circle moment in his relationship with Everson.

"I walked with a crutch down the aisle halfway and he was positioned there in a certain spot where I stopped and handed off the crutch to him and continued the rest of the way on my own," Swafford said. "It was very symbolic."

On Wednesday, Swafford's team at University Health continued cheering him on so he can achieve his next goal: returning to farming.

Its been a long, tough road, but its been very rewarding, the relationships weve made," Swafford said.

This story was originally published by Lily O'Shea Becker with the Scripps News Group in Kansas City.