A Hutchinson man survived a grueling, lonely ordeal last Wednesday, after being run over by a bulldozer and struggling to find his cell phone to call 911.

“I needed to find that phone or I was going to die, is what I kept telling myself,” said 34-year-old Thomas Malchow, speaking on his cell phone earlier this week from his room at Hennepin County Medical Center.

“Staying calm and knowing that I needed to call for help was the only thing that could save me,” Malchow recalled. “That and a prayer to God.”

Find out how Malchow survived, and what lies ahead for him, in tomorrow’s Leader.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)