Loren Shuls, a 19-year-old American boy from Falls, Montana, is a forklift driver in a local highway bridge restoration project. On September 27, 2019, as on every ordinary day before, as he drove a forklift through the bridge deck being repaired, an accident that was about to change his life suddenly occurred.
At that time, due to road construction, the already narrow one-way street on the bridge deck became more difficult to drive. Loren drove a forklift that was slower, and some anxious drivers began to find ways to overtake. Loren let the cars pass smoothly, so he turned in the direction and leaned towards the edge of the bridge. However, he drove too far, the load-bearing capacity of the part of the bridge edge was relatively weak, and the bridge was in urgent need of repair, and the forklift driven by Loren suddenly crushed the edge of the bridge deck and fell straight to the bottom of the hillside with a depth of more than 15 meters.
(Loren in a hospital bed with the construction site where he used to work)
At the moment of the accident, Loren's first reaction was to jump out of the car and escape, but because his feet were wrapped in seat belts, he could not move at all. In the process of falling, the forklift rotated three times and pressed firmly on Loren's body, but even if it fell from such a high altitude and was ruthlessly crushed by a forklift weighing several tons, Loren did not die on the spot.
In addition to the luck component, one of the main reasons why Loren did not die on the spot was that Loren's bridge repair engineering team happened to have flipped the land on that side the day before the accident, which made the soil layer at loren's fall site relatively soft, and helped him share a lot of force when Loren landed and was crushed by the forklift, otherwise Loren was likely to be directly crushed into two pieces by the forklift and died on the spot.
(Shocking wounds on Loren's body)
When rescuers and medical staff arrived at the scene, they were shocked by the devastation in front of them. Loren's right arm exploded, the bones had turned into powder, and his lower body had been squeezed flat, turning into a fleshy meatloaf. What's even more frightening is that, according to Loren himself, he remained awake throughout the accident.
He watched himself fall to the ground, witnessing the forklift crashing on him, a whole muscle of his right arm being lifted off, and the hellish pain that clearly and coldly stimulated every nerve of his. Naturally, the rescuers did not dare to be idle, and sent the dying Loren to a helicopter to the best hospital in Seattle for emergency surgery.
(Loren, who is about to be pushed into the operating room)
Obviously, Loren's right arm must not have been saved, the doctor's main direction of attack became to try to save his lower body, they tied the main veins of Loren's lower body, and scanned his body to see how damaged his lower body was, but the scan shattered all the doctor's illusions, Loren's pelvis, genitals and all the bones in his legs had been completely shattered. Loren's sperm could not be extracted and preserved as a result, meaning that even if he survived a series of subsequent surgeries, he would be permanently infertile.
(Loren with only upper body)
The doctor told Loren the truth about the results and threw him a question of life and death: whether to choose to completely amputate his lower body or choose to abandon treatment and wait for death.
This is not an easy choice. Although lower body amputation made it theoretically possible for Loren to survive, lower body amputation required multiple surgeries, each of which was extremely risky, and the pain caused by surgery was no less painful than that of a car accident. Even if Loren survives the operation, the road to recovery will be extremely long, and he will become a disabled person completely, almost losing the ability to take care of himself, and being subject to a wheelchair for life. For a lively teenager at just 19 years old, every day of his life is likely to be a nightmare to be alive.
(Loren chatting with his girlfriend Sabbia in a hospital bed)
Loren was not knocked down by that series of difficulties, and his strong desire to survive led him to bravely choose to amputate his lower body. In response, Loren jokingly said: "In fact, this is not a difficult decision, I will die if I don't choose that way." So what kind of belief made Loren so obsessed with living? We only have to look outside the ward to know why.
(Sweet kissing photo of Loren and Sabbia before the accident)
The blonde who had been guarding Outside Loren's ward was named Sabia. She is Loren's girlfriend and the two of them have been dating for 18 months. When she learned that Loren had an accident, she rushed to the hospital as soon as possible, stayed by Loren's side, and used her encouragement and love to give Loren hope of living, she assured Loren that no matter what happened, she would not leave Loren, she only hoped that Loren would not die. Sure enough, Sabbia's inseparability encouraged Loren, which is also the source of Loren's strong belief in survival.
(Loren and Sabia returning home after surgery)
When Loren chose to amputate his lower body and decided to fight fate to the end, the doctors quickly began to prepare for the next day's surgery. That night, the doctor knew that it was cruel, but to fulfill his obligation, he had to tell Sabiya a very sad fact, that is, Loren's physical condition was not optimistic, the risk of surgery after that was very high, tonight was likely to be the last night of their bitter couple together, if Loren could survive this operation, it would be a miracle. And similar miracles happened six times in a row in a month.
Recalling that month, Sabia said: "Loren was still suffering from pulmonary artery embolism, and his breathing was all supported by a breathing tube, so he could not speak, and their communication was all about writing letters. The night before the surgery, he wrote 'I love you' on a piece of paper because it was probably our last night together, and I still have that piece of paper in my possession. And then many more times, the doctor told me he might not get through, so we had a lot of 'I love you' and so on. That month was filled with too many heartfelt, tearful, sad conversations. ”
(Loren with a breathing tube)
Sabia choked up and continued, "Fate has been mocking us, and every time we say goodbye to each other, he has survived, and every time he seems to be getting better, he always has to undergo surgery again, and he may have to go through that kind of farewell of life and death." The feeling of keeping his heart hanging in his throat was terrible, but anyway, he eventually came back to life. ”
A month after the accident, Loren was transferred to a hospital in Montana for family visits, but doctors still didn't feel like Loren would be strong enough to survive. Multiple surgeries, slow recovery, and prolonged bed rest left him in a long-term state of weakness, and once the wound became worse and infected, Loren was likely to be taken away by death.
At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic began to break out in the United States, and the spread of the epidemic was unusually rapid, and hospitals were one of the most likely places for the new crown virus to reach frequently. Once Loren contracted the coronavirus, it was likely that he would never be able to leave his hospital bed alive again. But unexpectedly, Loren's health after surgery began to improve at an incredible rate. The doctor had conservatively estimated that he would also be hospitalized for at least a year and a half when everything was going well, but he only stayed for three months, and then after four weeks of rehabilitation training in the rehabilitation center, he passed a series of tests, and the doctor, in surprise, gave him the green light to go home.
(Loren doing rehabilitation)
Coming home from the hospital was only the first phase of Loren's long recovery cycle. When he returns home, on the one hand, he must continue to do complicated rehabilitation training, on the other hand, he must start a new way of life, and many of the things that he could easily do have become fantasies.
Take the simplest distance to the toilet, and all his excretion must rely on a special catheter. Friends who have been on the catheter must have a deep understanding, when there is a tube has been inserted in the body, even if lying flat, there is always a hidden discomfort around the whole body, if the action is slightly larger, the catheter and the skin in the body rub, pain and infection will follow, and the body is also likely to have a rejection reaction to the catheter, the whole person may be in a state of low fever.
In addition to physical difficulties, psychological barriers are said to be more difficult problems to overcome. As mentioned earlier, Loren was always awake when he fell and was crushed by forklifts, so those unbearable pictures have always been deeply engraved in his mind, often accompanying him into his dreams. Loren often had panic attacks, convulsions all over his body, and sometimes sleep became the last enemy he wanted to face.
(Loren and Sabbia)
If all the vehicles had been able to pass in an orderly line, and if Loren had not pulled over to the side to give way to the overtaking vehicles, the tragedy would most likely not have happened, and all the suffering endured afterwards would have ceased. For ordinary people, such a thought may become a rope to bind people, even if they have the strength to break free, but Loren has never had such a thought, his attachment to life shatters all imaginary problems. He just wanted to live as independently as possible, using the remaining remnants of his body to make himself as good as possible. Loren, for example, has learned how to put on his "bucket" prosthesis and sit in a wheelchair without any help.
(Loren's bucket prosthesis)
In addition, Loren also plans to show the public the bright and dark sides of his life through social media, in which he wants to maintain his unrelenting love for life, always reminding himself that there are still things to do, and must not succumb to the clutches of despair.
In addition, he also wants to use his own experience to lead all those who have suffered or are suffering from illness, telling them that everyone can be optimistic, everyone can embrace the hope of life, and everyone can choose to be stronger. In fact, loren is now like loren before him, and is also completing the construction of a bridge, but this bridge spans the Internet, connecting him with all the listeners, so that loren with severe disabilities can still have the same interpersonal communication and interpersonal relationships as ordinary people.
(Sabia and Loren's YouTube account page)
All of Loren's efforts were watched by his girlfriend Sabbia. After Loren told his girlfriend Sabia about his idea of running a video account, Sabbia was very supportive of Loren's idea and co-created a new YouTube account with him called "Sabia and Loren", in which he shared their life dynamics from time to time. When netizens asked Sabia under the video why she was with Loren after such a tragic accident, Sabia said: "Throughout the process, Loren has been very innovative about the future life, trying his best to make himself as independent as possible.
Whenever an obstacle arises in our lives, he will find ways to overcome it and come up with a crazy solution that 'normal' people wouldn't normally think of. I knew that if I were in his position, I would definitely become a self-pitying person. Everybody does things differently and I feel like he really beats everything mentally and physically. His attitude and effort to do his best to make his life and that of me as normal as possible is one of the things I really like about him. After that accident, he didn't change, he still kept himself, and I was really proud of him. ”
(Loren and Sabbia by car)
As the saying goes, afflictions see the truth. This accident did not make the couple Luo Yan fly apart, but glued the two more closely together, making them more grateful for life, grateful for each other's existence, and their relationship has also reached a higher level with time. In 2020, Loren asked Sabia to propose, and Sabbia agreed to Loren's marriage proposal despite the obstruction of the people around him. In 2021, they had a small but intimate wedding at home.
(Marriage scene between Loren and Sabbia)
When we look back at the whole thing, Loren's greatness is on display in every way. For most of us, in relatively normal circumstances, or in the midst of tolerable pain, making a decision always involves a series of assessments, comparisons, and even remorse. The reason we take the time to make decisions is because we know that instinct can be the best mentor or a bad advisor.
In the scene at that time, there was not much time left for Loren to make the decision that would definitely affect himself and all those around him, but he did not sway from side to side because of the lack of time, but did not hesitate to make a decision, because he found that there was a sense of urgency that accompanied him, and this sense of urgency clearly told him that life was an immeasurable gift, a gift that could not be easily abandoned. We can speculate that there must have been a moment of absolute lucidity when Loren heard all the echoes of the life he still wanted to live from the word "amputation."
Whether to die or to live is a question that humans have been discussing for thousands of years. Among them, the mystery that drives people to make the final choice is how many chances, or how much determination, can turn living a good life. Choosing death is always the easiest thing to do, because death means that there are no consequences to bear, no future to worry about, and choosing to live requires great courage, especially for people in a situation like Loren, after all, it is almost impossible for him to get back on the right track of life.
Once you've made a decision, stick to it. In Loren's own words, you can't just think about what you can't have, you have to cherish and make the most of what you have.