A man who was cut in half by a forklift says he is finally starting to see ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ after six months of agonising pain.
If you’re looking for a source of inspiration online, Loren Schauers’ content is a great place to start.
The young lad suffered life-changing injuries at the tender age of 18 while working as a labourer on a remote site in Montana, US.
He was driving a forklift across a bridge when it plummeted 50ft to the ground and tumbled on tip of him, pinning him beneath the industrial truck.
Ultimately, doctors had to perform a hemicorporectomy surgery – meaning everything from below the waist is amputated – to save his life.
Loren’s circumstances changed dramatically following the near-fatal incident in September 2019, but incredibly, he has remained extremely positive.
Loren and Sabia shared a new YouTube video giving fans an update (YouTube/Sabia and Loren)
He’s been through a hell of a lot over the last several years, but the last six months have really tested the now 23-year-old.
His wife Sabia, who has remained by his side since the incident, shared an update on her partner’s health in a new YouTube video.
The couple regularly share content on social media to educate people on how Loren lives and the challenges he faces.
And in their latest clip which was shared on Sunday (8 December), Sabia explained how hard the last six months had been for her husband.
The young woman explained that Loren has been dealing with kidney stones, which can be extremely painful and can lead to kidney infections, according to the NHS.
Sabia explained that Loren has been ‘battling kidney infections back-to-back’ and had recently been hospitalised as a result.
“We’ve been trying to tackle the kidney infections at home and he’s been getting antibiotics, but it just keeps coming back,” she said.
“He’ll be without antibiotics for like five days and the infection is already back. So finally, we got him admitted to the hospital to get some IV antibiotics in his system to try and just knock it out.”
The couple are looking forward to Loren’s surgery in January (Instagram/@loren.schauers)
Sabia revealed that Loren has finally been booked in for surgery to get rid of his kidney stones in January next year, meaning it will have been six months since he’s had them.
“So that’s six months since he’s been unable to get up in his bucket, six months of back to back kidney infections and these kidney stones is just being terrible,” she went on.
But Loren simply seemed thankful that he’s finally seeing some ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ after a hellish six months in pain.
Speaking from his hospital room, the American said he had been in even more pain of late as he is also dealing with a hematoma on his kidney and severe constipation too.
Doctors are set to trial him on some new pain medications and a muscle relaxer which will be administered ‘as needed’ to make Loren as comfortable as possible.
As well as this, Loren said his primary doctor suggested putting him on regular antibiotics when he leaves the hospital to try and minimise his risk of infections.
“I don’t have to go on a full script,” he said. “The doc was considering putting me on antibiotics three times a week to prevent infections from becoming full blown.
“He knows that three times a week isn’t ideal, but it’s less damaging than a repeated frequent full cycle.”
Due to the upcoming festive period and Loren’s scheduled surgery next month, the couple told their 658,000 subscribers that new content will be coming in February 2025.
Viewers rushed to the comment section to give them words of support, as well as praising Loren’s resilience.
One viewer commented: “True meaning of ‘in sickness and health’. Prayers are with you both.”
Another wrote: “This is truly difficult to watch Loren in such pain. He is a warrior. Get better soon Loren.””
A third added: “The grit, determination and positivity in the face of such adversity is truly inspirational. The bond of love and devotion between these two young people is beyond the experience of 99.9% of all couples.”
A fourth wrote: “Oh my gosh. I can’t believe he’s been suffering with this for 6 months. He is an incredible human being. I’m praying for you both and hope the surgery goes well and he doesn’t get another infection.”
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’.
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.
Instagram/@loren.schauers
“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.
“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.
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.
“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
A man who was cut in half by a forklift revealed he was conscious the entire time.
In September 2019, Loren Schauers was just 18 when he was involved in the freak accident while working as a labourer.
The American was driving a forklift across a bridge when it veered off course and he plummeted 50ft to the ground.
While Loren survived the accident, he was crushed under the huge vehicle and suffered life-changing injuries.
At the time, his then girlfriend, now-wife, Sabia, received a call to say the lad was undergoing surgery. Four hours later, Loren was airlifted to another hospital after he ‘lost blood flow to his legs’.
And while you think that plummeting so far to the ground and being crushed by a forklift would have you unconscious, that wasn’t the case for Loren.
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He horrifyingly explained: “I was conscious throughout everything, so I actually watched as the forklift fell on top of me and crushed my body.”
The labourer lost three limbs as a result of the accident and medics performed hemicorporectomy surgery. In this, everything below the lad’s waist was amputated.
He previously explained the decision: “It wasn’t a hard choice to have half my body amputated – it was basically a choice of living or dying.”
His mum has power of attorney before the operation, according to Sabia, meaning she had a tricky decision to make.
“She didn’t know whether to have the surgery done and for him to wake up and hate her for it, or not have the surgery done and he die and her feel like she killed her son,” she said.
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Sabia added: “I knew he wasn’t going anywhere because he looked them dead in the eye and told them he didn’t care if he was just a head on a plate, they’re going to do the surgery and they’re going to keep him alive.”
Loren and Sabia often update followers on their life and his condition on social media and in one YouTube video, he admitted he was ‘disappointed’ by how his mates reacted.
During a live stream, a user asked: “Do your friends still treat you the same way they used to before the accident? Are you happy, surprised or disappointed by some of them?”
Loren replied: “I’ve been mostly disappointed by most of them, I’d say.”
Loren went on to explain that ‘a couple of friends came out of the woodworks and have been really supportive’.
However, ‘other friends totally reverted and have been reclusive’, he added.
“But it’s whatever to me, you know,” Loren continued. “I got Sabia that’s all I need.”
Loren Schauers was 18 years old when he was involved in a horrific accident which changed his life forever.
He was working as a labourer in Montana in September 2019 when the forklift he’d been behind the wheel of veered off a bridge and plummeted 50ft to the ground.
The 18-year-old ended up pinned beneath the forklift and gave permission for everything below his waist to be amputated as it was a choice between that and dying.
He was ‘conscious throughout everything’ during the horrific accident where it crushed his pelvis and right arm, meaning he was well aware of the forklift falling on him and crushing his body and the agonising ’10, 15 minute’ wait while his co-workers tried to get the forklift off him.
In the end he had to have three of his limbs amputated.
When he was 18 Loren Schauers was cut in half by a forklift. (YouTube/SabiaandLoren)
Since then Loren has spoken out several times about the impact being cut in half by a forklift has had on his life, including finding it difficult to make friends and discovering that many of his former friends weren’t all that willing to stick with him.
In a YouTube channel he runs with his wife Sabia, Loren has provided a number of updates on his life and let people see what he gets up to.
His most recent video reflected on it being five years since he was cut in half by the forklift, and in it he explained that his pain was becoming more manageable.
Loren explained that the rehab techniques he’d been taught by doctors had helped ‘erase the phantom pain’ over the years.
He said: “My pain is definitely more under control now, my health is a little wild and out of control.”
Continuing his update, he told his viewers: “Five years later pain’s under control, life is finally managed in a way that we can control it now.
“I don’t know how to explain it, it’s not as epic, things aren’t like bombs dropping on us any more. We kind of know what to expect with certain things, and can kind of tell what’s gonna happen.
“Me and Sabia are doing great. We don’t get out much. We went to Lollapalooza in Chicago and had a great time obviously.”
Loren said that when at home ‘she’s reading her books, I’m watching my TV shows’ and that ‘we’re just existing’.
Sabia joined him for much of the rest of the episode as they answered a plethora of popular questions on their life together.
