Loren Schauers: Man cut in half by forklift wanted docs to save him even if he was 'just a head on plate'
MONTANA, UNITED STATES: A young man who was cut in half by a forklift and survived pleaded with doctors to save him even if they could only spare his head. In September 2019, Loren Schauers, now 21, was operating a forklift when it went off the road and fell 50 feet. Schauers suffered serious injuries after being pinned to the ground by the four-ton vehicle.
The unfortunate incident shook Schauers' life, and to save him, doctors courageously opted for a hemicorporectomy, amputating all three limbs below the waist. At one point, Schauers begged the medical staff to save his life, even if it meant he would be left with only one head.
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Who is taking care of Loren Schauers now?
Loren Schauers lives without his legs and right forearm more than three years after the horrible tragedy, and his wife Sabia Reiche takes care of him. Reiche opened up about that time when physicians informed the Schauers family that their loved one would be undergoing major surgery and would need to have everything amputated below the waist in order to survive. "We were all like super shocked and none of us knew how to react and none of us knew how Loren would react because he’s an 18-year-old guy living life to the full," she mentioned. "And so there were fears in our heads that he wouldn’t want this surgery or would rather die than lose half of his body. But his sister really fought hard to let him make that decision."
'He didn’t care if he was just a head on a plate'
According to Reiche, Schauers' mother had power of attorney prior to the procedure, which left her with an extremely difficult choice 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," Reiche went on. They did ultimately decide to go with the surgery, and when Schauers recovered, they realized that it had been the best choice because he was adamant about surviving the horrible experience. "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," Reiche stated. "That really brought a lot of hope for us, that he was a fighter, but we already knew that because he was still alive," as reported by LadBible.
Sabia Schauers-Reiche married Schauers in February 2021, approximately two years after the builder sustained injuries in an accident that required amputation from the waist down.
'Family is something special'
The US man's Instagram profile is full of family photos with more than 50,000 followers. His bio says, "Video creator, Hemicorperectomy, Not by choice, But that's okay, I'm happy to be alive." His page is flooded with lovely messages from his fans. A user commented, "I don't know loren personally but I consider him my bro, he is tough and kind and he earned my respect he did, i had tough life myself and I saw and felt the importantance of people real people standing by y, be strong loren." Another user said, "Family is something special, your followers are also part of it." Another user wrote, "Family is the foundation of life, I'm very happy to see you happy with the family, cheers."