Ganmain local Adam was in Marrar doing a baling job when suddenly he heard a knocking noise in the machine.

"I had heard it before and got up to do a routine check and all of a sudden my arm was pulled into the machine," he said.

"I looked down, and it was gone. It happened very, very quick. I think my shirt was grabbed and pulled into the machine."

As Adam was looking down at where his arm was supposed to be, he knew he could not just keep standing there.

"I thought to myself 'I need to get help or I am probably going to die in this paddock because I am losing a lot of blood'," he said.

"I had a lot going through my head. I was thinking of my family and thought 'I am the main provider, and if I am not here how are they going to go without me'.

"I knew Damien [another farmer] was in the next paddock, and I knew he was not far away. I did what I had to do."

So, jumping back into the tractor, and leaving his arm behind, Adam managed to drive to the neighbouring paddock while calling his dad to tell him to give the other farmer the heads-up.

"I found Damien, and I had never actually met him before I jumped out of the tractor," Adam said.

"There were three ambulances that arrived, from memory, and one of the paramedics said 'he needs to go to Canberra, not Wagga' and I do remember the helicopter landing, but after that, I could not remember much."

His wife, Amanda Symons, was walking through their door when she got the call that no one could prepare for.

As Adam's name flashed on the screen, she answered, and he told her "darl, my arm's been ripped off".

"It's hard getting service in this house, so I was standing still and just saying 'where are you'," Amanda said.

"He said 'I am in Marrar', which is about half an hour from me. Then he just stopped talking, so I didn't know if he had passed out or if he had called for help or if anyone was with him."

Amanda told Adam's mum what happened, and they found out his brother was on the way to him. But, after finding out exactly what happened, she was amazed at her husband's strength and determination.

"It was incredible that he still had the mental capacity to make sure they got his arm out of the baler," Amanda said.

"He had to run them through what to do on the machine to retrieve it safely.

"I explained to Damien what lever to pull, and that it should just flick it out the back, and he just picked it up, wrapped it up in a towel," Adam added.

After waking up in the hospital, Adam could not believe that his arm was there.

"I looked down, and I remember my mum came over, and I said 'that's not my arm, that can't be my arm'," he said.

"She had to call the doctor over because I was pretty emotional, and he told me that they had been able to get it back on, and it had a pulse.

"My brother rang, and my mum had to take a photo of my arm and send it to him because he couldn't believe they had been able to reattach it."

Adam would stay in Canberra Hospital for 22 days during which he had at least four skin graft operations. Both he and Amanda said they could not thank the doctors enough.

"I am just in the healing process now, and then I am going to go back in February and talk stage two," Adam said.

"There's a lot more operations to get my hand to move. I don't have feeling in the lower part of my arm. Next year will be very busy with a lot of therapy. Once I have the second operation done, it's going to be a lot of rehab. I will be in Canberra a fair bit. As for work, I have been told not to even think about it at this stage."

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Adam said people often ask "how much movement will you be able to get back", but in his mind, the doctors have already got him halfway there.

"They got my arm back on, and I am still here," he said. "That's what I am focusing on. But, the surgeon thinks we can get it back to 60 per cent."

When his best mate, Nathan McPherson heard the news, he decided to start a GoFundMe page to help ease the financial burdens he knew the Symons family would face. Nathan and Adam have known each other since birth, growing up on neighbouring farms. They were even each other's best man.

"We were saying that if we could get $20,000, then we would be pretty stoked," he said. "But to get more than four times that is pretty overwhelming."

Nathan said when he first heard the news, he did not think there was any possibility that Adam was going to get his arm back. But, he was ecstatic to be proven wrong.

"He's in pretty good spirits being back home, but he's got a long road ahead," Nathan said. "The locals have outdone themselves with getting behind him."

The GoFundMe page raised $81,711, smashing its $20,000 goal. More than 350 people dipped into their pockets to lend support to the family. But, Adam said, it was not only financial donations that people contributed.

"When I got home, there were people here baling hay and the next day they were carting hay, stacking it and bringing their machines to help," he said. "People turned up with headers, trucks, and they were mowing lawns, and cooking meals. It wasn't just for us either. They were doing it for my mum and dad and my sister and brother."

Adam added that he did not expect the overwhelming support at all, especially considering the year it's been and the struggles fellow farmers have faced.

"The way people have dropped everything to be here, especially with harvest which has been a struggle for the last three years," he said. "They just turned up like it was an everyday thing and got into it."

Amanda said it was special to be a part of a community that rallies when someone needs help, and she is so grateful for all the support they received.

"It's a miracle that he is alive, so anything that comes is a bonus, and the lesson in it all is you're only promised today," she said.

"That's given me a big wake up call," Adam added. "I was working all the time, and it's hit home that work is not everything. I am really focusing on my family because that's what is important."