According to accounts, Loren Schauers, 19, of Great Falls, Montana, was driving a forklift truck crossing a bridge when it toppled and dropped 50 feet to the ground. The adolescent was trapped beneath the four-ton car.
Loren remained aware throughout, watching as his right arm was shattered and the truck held down the lower part of his body.
As a result of his wounds, the 19-year-old was forced to make a sad choice: have the bottom half of his body amputated or die.
Sabia, Loren’s girlfriend, said farewell to him six times while he was in the hospital. Doctors informed her often that he wouldn’t live another day.
Despite this, he remained alive. The couple, who had been together for 18 months at the time of the tragedy, had gotten engaged earlier this year.
Having half of his body amputated wasn’t a difficult decision – it was simply an option between surviving or dying, Loren revealed.
With Sabia promising to remain by his side regardless of what and his entire immediate family surrounding him, it wasn’t a difficult decision for him.
Loren was involved in a crash in September of 2019 when he was compelled to drive along the edge of a bridge to allow passing automobiles. The structure, though, collapsed beneath him, and despite his best efforts to escape clear of the vehicle, his leg became caught in his seatbelt.
The truck rolled three times before collapsing on top of him, inflicting serious wounds. Doctors attempted to rescue his lower extremities, particularly his right hip, genitalia, and left thigh, yet his pelvis was too crushed. They also failed to preserve his sperm.
There were numerous emotional, crying, sorrowful chats within the first month of his being in hospital, Sabia explained.
The first time they said goodbye was before his surgery, but he still had his intubator in and couldn’t communicate, so he wrote to them.
The night before his operation, he wrote ‘I love you’ on a scrap of paper as if it were their final night together. She still has that scrap of paper.
The doctors would say he was going to die, they’d say their goodbyes, and then he wouldn’t.
To put it bluntly, it sucked, and they despised it. His health was mocking them, as if to say, ‘haha, we’re OK now, but we’re going to die soon, so you’ll all be sad,’ but then he lived.
Nonetheless, Loren had to go through an extraordinary recuperation procedure. Amidst this, he maintained his resolve to live and defied physicians’ predictions.
He was supposed to stay in the hospital for at least 18 months, but he was released after three months, including four weeks in rehab.
His biggest advice to anybody else going through anything like this is that you can’t dwell on the things you can’t have and you have to live your life to the max with what you do have, Loren said of his challenges.
What a really inspiring young dude. I can only fathom how such a life-changing tragedy must affect someone, and Loren has shown himself to be courageous in this regard.
