A man who was horrifically cut in half by a forklift has recounted the heartbreaking details of the accident which led to the amputation of the entire bottom half of his body.
Loren Schauers, 23, opened up about the fateful day that his life changed forever as an 18-year-old while he was working as a labourer on a remote site in Montana, US, in September 2019.
He described how he turned his head and saw his right arm, which had been torn off during the incident, 'covered in dirt', as he remained conscious throughout the entire ordeal which left 'blood everywhere'.
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The young lad had been behind the wheel of an industrial truck when it plummeted 50ft off the side of it and tumbled on top of him, pinning him beneath the forklift.
In a harrowing YouTube video shared just months after the accident, Loren explained that while his team were working on the overpass, a passing car had knocked down one of their barriers - filled with water to weigh it down - that were up.
Split-second decision
So, although he claims he was 'never trained' to drive the vehicle, he was asked to 'grab the forklift which is on the other side of the bridge, drive it across, and move the water barrier back into position'.
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As he did so, Loren said that another car then came 'speeding across' the bridge after running a red light, leaving him with little options except from trying to get out of their way.
He explained: "I tried to hurry and move and since he was going so fast and whatnot, he couldn't stop and he basically pushed me off to the side, onto my far side of the forklift.
"And so I get onto the dirt part on the end of the bridge, trying to get out of his way, and the dirt wasn't fully compacted yet.
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"The dirt workers just came that day and laid it down, so it didn't have full compaction, so driving a big-ass forklift on it obviously was gonna make it indent into the ground, you know.
"Well, the car pushed me to the side so much that the hillside on my right hand side and the dirt not being compacted started to cause the forklift to lift up."
The labourer said despite his best efforts, he could not get the forklift to tilt downwards and it instead slowly began 'creaking up to tip over'.
Pinned under the forklift
He explained that since he was not trained to operate the vehicle, he didn't know what safety protocol to follow in an emergency - but he thought unbuckling his seatbelt and attempting to jump out of it would be his best bet.
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But as he made his bid for safety, Loren's leg got caught up in his seatbelt.
He recalled: "So, I swung out instead, breaking two of my ribs off the floorboard of the forklift and by this time, the forklift's rolling down the hill.
"And then it rolled again and I was able to clear it, but then I wasn't able to clear the top of it.
"Since I wasn't able to clear it, it landed on my pelvis and my right arm and like, sunk me into the dirt.
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"So, it didn't split me right in half, it just crushed every bone from my pelvis down pretty much," he said.
Loren claims that he faced an agonising ' 10, 15 minute' wait as his co-workers scrambled to get a bigger machine to yank the forklift off of him, which he spent 'in complete shock'.
"I had no pain whatsoever, and I just, the hardest part about that was probably just breathing 'cause it felt like my breathing was restricted," he said.
As they had no mobile phone signal to alert emergency services, one of his colleagues had to drive to the next town over, Wilsall, to find a medic, before he was later helicoptered to hospital.
Legs were 'completely done for'
Speaking of his experience in hospital, Loren continued: "There's, like, 10 to 15 people in this emergency room just all while not knowing what the f**k to do.
"I lifted my head and looked up and I see my legs just looking like Derrick Rose's leg times ten. Pretty much just bone sticking out everywhere and my legs were just completely done for, let's put it at that.
"And they slam my head down, put a strap over my head, told me that they didn't want me to lift my head in case I broke my spine. And then they put the anaesthesia mask on me. Still felt no pain at this point.
"And as I'm laying there, still not feeling any pain, I felt them make this midline incision in my stomach and start putting my ribs back into place.
"I don't know if it was a feeling or a hearing but it was like, cracking, and finally I passed out."
In the following days, his then-girlfriend and now-wife Sabia said her goodbyes to him six times but Loren managed to pull through and later decided to undergo hemicorporectomy surgery - which meant the amputation of everything below the waist.
Recalling his reaction to the life-changing decision, Sabia said: "From that moment is when I knew that he wasn't going anywhere, because he looked them dead in the eye and told them that he doesn't care if he's just a head on a plate, they're gonna do the surgery and they're gonna keep him alive.
"And so, that really brought a lot of hope for us that, you know, he was a fighter, which we already knew because he was still alive."
The couple are still going strong and regularly share updates and videos on social media to let people know how Loren lives and what life looks like for him now.
Olivia Burke