FRANKLIN TWP — A freak accident Sunday left 46-year-old Donald Cratty hospitalized with a fractured neck and a partially severed ear. A head wound needed stapled shut.

After apparently being hit by a falling tree, he'll be laid up for the next two months — the worst possible position for a farmer with land to toil.

The misfortune has wreaked havoc on his family. Lives have been disrupted and emotions frayed. The fear of what the future holds for Donald's recovery has caused sleepless nights in the Cratty household.

The Franklin Township farm family — dad, mom and four children — has no medical insurance to ease the mind.

But through the turmoil, the Cratty clan is counting its blessings, thanks to the overflow of support from the community — friends and strangers alike.

“I don't know what we ever did to deserve such an outpouring of help from the community,” said Natascha Cratty, Donald's wife. “It's beyond belief.

Friends and neighbors have made a seemingly steady stream of visits to the Cratty home on Country Club Road, armed with cooked meals, groceries and cash donations.

“It's been like a restaurant and a grocery store,” Natascha said. “Someone even dropped off a bag of dog food,”

The family's unexpected ordeal began Sunday afternoon when Donald left the house about 1 p.m. to cut trees for firewood on the farm where they grow hay and corn.

They would not hear back from him until an hour later when he made a frantic cell phone call, begging for help.

He was badly injured and bloodied. His words were barely comprehensible.

“He didn't make much sense,” Natascha said.

He mentioned something about being knocked out.

“He said 'help me, honey, help me,” his wife recounted.

What happened to Donald? Not even he knows for sure. His memory of that day is almost vacant.

“He doesn't even remember calling me,” Natascha said.

After days of investigative work on their own and with the help of a friend, the family has come to believe that Donald was cutting down a tree with a chain saw when bad luck struck.

The intended tree, or another one nearby, split or snapped and came down, hitting Donald.

He was knocked unconscious for maybe 20 minutes. He came to and somehow made it out of the woods to his pickup truck, where he got his phone.

Answering her husband's call, Natascha immediately gathered up three of the couple's four sons, ranging in age from 9 to 21, jumped in their Jeep and headed to find Donald. She also called 911.

It didn't take long to find his pickup in a hay field near the tree line of woods. Donald was lying on his back.

”He was confused,” his wife recalled. “He was screaming in pain.”

Within minutes, a contingent from the Prospect Volunteer Fire Department was there.

“(Donald) was bleeding and had a couple of cuts to the back and side of his head,” said Ken Wilson, assistant chief for the Prospect department. “He also was complaining of severe neck pain.”

Wilson described the injured man as “dazed and confused.”

A Butler Ambulance Service crew soon arrived bringing more help. Before long, a medical helicopter landed in the hay field and flew Donald to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Physicians reattached his torn left ear and used surgical staples to close his lacerated head.

The most serious injury, a neck broken in three places, has left him in a brace. He may later need neck fusion surgery, depending on his recovery.

Much needed good news came Wednesday when Donald finally returned home. But he'll be pretty much immobilized for six to eight weeks, Natascha admitted.

That means he cannot work the farm or his other job at Butler Pre-Owned Auto Sales and Service in Butler Township, where he repairs campers.

The couple's eldest son, a senior at Westminster College, and their 20-year-old, who works at Rural King at the Clearview Mall in Center Township, are helping out on the farm as much as they can, but the Crattys fear this year's remaining crop will be lost.

Still, their gratitude trumps grievance. Donald is spared paralysis, and they know they are surrounded by people who care.

“The community has been wonderful,” Natascha said. “There are no words to describe it. We feel extremely grateful.”