“How long will I love you
As long as there are stars above you
And longer if I can…”
The 1990 song by The Waterboys plays as the YouTube video rolls.
Two very ordinary young people: Cupid’s arrow struck him as he tossed stir-fry behind the counter at a local eatery. She says she told him he’d have to make the first move.
Thus, love struck Great Falls residents, Loren Schauers, 18, and Sabia Mistral-Reiche, 21, two years ago. Then, on Sept. 27, of last year, life changed forever.
At that time, Sabia received a call saying that Loren had been injured in a construction accident at his worksite in a remote area near Wilsall about 30 miles north of Livingston. He was being flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. She then began the flight to get there, accompanied by his mother.
In the days that followed, she would learn what had happened, and be a part of Loren’sdecision to have what can only be described as a radical amputation, but which has now, five months later, become their new normal.
It has highlighted their love as the core from which they say they keep their future in sight.
The accident
Loren describes how a combination of factors led to him becoming pinned beneath a forklift that had, “rolled onto a pile of soft dirt.”
“I was conscious the entire time,” he said. “I lay there 10 to 15 minutes because they had to get a bigger machine to lift the forklift off me.”
Hechuckles slightly as he tells his story on YouTube.
“I had no pain whatsoever. I was in complete shock," Loren said. "The hardest part was breathing, because it felt like my breathing was restricted.”
A helicopter showed up, transporting him first to a Bozeman emergency room.
“They gave me anesthesia and cut my clothes off,” he said. “I looked down and saw the bones sticking out of my legs. I could hear them pushing my ribs back into place, then I passed out.”
From there, he was flown by Mercy flight to Harborview, where the coincidence of a retired doctor familiar with Loren’s type of injury happened to be in the area and was willing to come in to do a consult.
Loren had been taken off sedation at the time and gave his approval for the amputation being suggested as the only possibility to save his life.
“They explained about the surgery and that he could die,”
Sabia said, “and he looked them in the eye and said he didn’t care … they were going to keep him alive.”
“I knew I’d lose all these limbs pretty much,” he said.
“The forklift didn’t cut me in half, but crushed every bone in my pelvis down to my feet along with the muscle in my forearm.”
A hemicorporectomy was done, along with the amputation of his right arm below the elbow.He expects to get a prosthetic arm that will have movement directed by his upper arm muscles.
Loren notes, good-naturedly in a video, that he was, “left-handed before the accident, so there’s no loss there.”
The connections
Currently, with over 250,000 combined followers around the world on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, and over 30-million views altogether, the couple has been flooded with comments and questions. They answer with candor and patience.
“It’s amazing who we’ve reached and touched,” Sabia said, noting that responses have been honest and diverse, and that the few, “crappy, rude comments have been handled by supportive people (posted comments).”
From mail received in their P.O. box she says, “I wasn’t expecting anyone to send anything as heartfelt as these letters are.”
They deal straightforwardly with questions on Loren’s amputation.
“We get questions like, ‘does he have any private parts?’” Sabia said. “He’s amputated below the waist. If that doesn’t answer your questions, Google hemicorporectomy.”
Loren gives clear descriptions of the processes and apparatus that let him, “poop, pee and fart.” He also, unabashedly, races his motorized wheelchair in videos, getting used to its controls, as well as the “bucket” prosthesis that allows him to sit upright, and which has taken much time and patience to get used to, not to mention the phantom pains that continue to be a part of every day.
Sabia describes how a pain specialist and physical therapist at a Chicago medical center, “worked together to figure out that the phantom pain in his left foot is physical, and the phantom pain in his right leg is mental.”
By isolating a spot in his spine that corresponds to his left foot pain, the pain is then alleviated by stretching the spine using a foam roller.
“If it’s his right leg,” she noted, “we go through his day and try to pinpoint things that upset or irritated him and work though his emotions about those events to help relieve that pain.”
Loren and Sabia credit the many staff members and physicians, from the first EMS personnel in Wilsall, to the hospitals in Bozeman, Seattle, Great Falls and Chicago, for the life-saving measures and therapies that have allowed them to return to life in their hometown.
Sabia has been by his side throughout, and will be his care provider in the home.
“When I first saw him in bed (after the surgery), so much of the bed wasn’t taken up,” she says. “ I sincerely just thought we were in the wrong room. Then they turned on the lights and Loren opened his eyes and it was just dreamlike. It didn’t feel real for the first couple of days, but then it was already my new reality.”
The gratitude
Family, friends, and even strangers have shown love and support, and the couple is aware that it takes most people time to adjust to Loren’s changes.
As they shop and go out in public, they are aware of Loren’s natural tendency to draw stares.
“Could you be more discreet, please?” Sabia thinks out loud following one encounter, then adds that in general they, “found people respectful and treating us like normal human beings.”
For Loren, he credits Sabia with his will to survive.
“Believe me,” he said, “if I had woken up and she wasn’t beside me, I probably wouldn’t have survived.Having her waking me up and kissing me on the forehead, brought me to terms that this wasn’t the end.”
When asked if they plan to marry and have kids, both answer “yes!”
“That’s a definite yes,” Loren said. “In fact, before this, just before the accident, you (he says to Sabia) were talking about how beautiful our kids would be. “
“All the time that we were in Seattle,” she said, “I kept thinking of all those little things you take for granted … holding hands, shopping, going to the movies. Makes me so aware of them. I’m thankful that we still have a shot at a future.”
Sabia notes that the donations from the GoFundMe account, which have now surpassed the goal she set last October at $50,000, have given them, “day-to-day financial stability,” allowing other possible resources time to get established.
Sabia and Loren take the time in several videos to remind the public that they can help avoid construction accidents. Loren explains that it was both his unfamiliarity in driving a forklift, combined with a motorist’s failure to stop at a stoplight that contributed to his accident.
“Construction rules are there for a reason,” she said. “Always yield to construction workers.”
Meanwhile, Loren appreciates being settled in their accessible apartment with just, “me, Sabia and the kitties, (El Bell and Ace).”
“I never really had a career in mind, but when things get settled, I think I’ll start doing real estate,” he said.
While the couple has received, “a few pieces of fan art from our followers of the two of us,” Sabia said, Loren has one item still on his wish list: “What I’d really like is a mural painting of us.”
Smiling at Sabia, he also acknowledged the help and attention from friends, family, and many others:
“This is the most love and support I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
How to help
gofundme.com/f/loren-s-new-life
Instagram//@sreuahcs@sabia.mistral
