Teen went from 6 to 28″ after amputation below…
Loren Schauers was “extremely happy and fulfilled” in his construction job — until a routine job in 2019 upended his life endlessly.
“I’ll always remember that day. I got in the forklift, and I was asked to move a water barrier back into place,” recalled Schauers, who was 18 at the time.
“I sank immediately into such an angle that I started to slow tip up and go down towards a 50-foot drop of a hill,” he continued. “Next thing I know, I’m watching this forklift roll downward towards me.”
It’s a miracle that Schauers, now 24, didn’t die while crushed beneath that forklift for half-hour. He underwent a hemicorporectomy, a uncommon surgical procedure that amputates the physique below the waist.
A tragic forklift accident in 2019 price Loren Schauers the organs and limbs below his waist. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Montana resident misplaced his pelvis, legs, proper forearm — even his genitalia.
He shares his struggles and triumphs on Wednesday’s premiere of “One Day in My Body,” airing at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The new TLC sequence highlights inspiring sufferers with extraordinarily uncommon medical circumstances.
“I wanted to be featured on ‘One Day in My Body’ in order to help show others in similar situations to me and the others on the show that you can still live a full life even if you’ve been through something painful and terrible,” Schauers told The Post.
“I feel like it’s very important to show both the good and bad of life with a disability,” he added.
Schauers’s accidents are extraordinarily devastating — he went from being practically 6 toes tall to 2 toes, 8 inches, with a weight that hovers around 90 kilos. And nothing is where it needs to be on his physique.
“The surgeon had to remove everything from his hip bones down,” household nurse practitioner Brandon Hawk explained, noting that the decrease hip space is where the intestines are located.
(*6*) Hawk said. “And then they had to make room for a colostomy for his stool to pass through and then a urostomy for urine because he no longer has a bladder.”
Schauers wished to be featured on the new TLC sequence “One Day in My Body” to show the ups and downs of life with a incapacity. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Schauers’s story isn’t just one of human resilience — it’s also of unbridled love.
Before the horrific accident, Schauers had been relationship and dwelling with Sabia Reiche for about 15 months.
Reiche, then 20, was shocked to get the call about Schauers’s emergency.
“When we were brought to Loren’s room, because he was already amputated so much, he was taking up such a small amount of the bed,” she recalled. “I was convinced we were in the wrong room. I thought we were in a kid’s room.”
Even though they had been dealing with overwhelming uncertainty, Reiche didn’t hesitate.
“It really wasn’t even a decision for me. My brain just immediately went, ‘OK, this is our life now,’” said Reiche, now 27.
Sabia Reiche stayed dedicated to Schauers by marrying him and turning into his main caretaker. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery.
“Loren relies 24/7 on me for everything,” she added. “Food or drinks or ostomy changes or giving him a shower.”
Schauers returned home from the hospital about 4 months after the accident. It took a while to get into a routine.
He has a wheelchair to get around and a “sitting apparatus” that resembles a turtle shell that permits him to sit up straight without placing strain on his backbone. Reiche is also shown carrying him on the episode.
“By the six-month mark, I was sitting up by myself, getting up at 8, 9:00 in the morning, emptying my pee bag, brushing my teeth,” Schauers said, “getting ready for the day by myself before my wife was even awake.”
Schauers and Reiche, who wed in 2021, have been documenting their actuality on their social media channels.
One of the most requested questions: How is their intercourse life?
Chronic kidney infections are one of Schauers’s top health challenges. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery.
“When it comes to intimacy, we’re not different than any other regular couple,” Schauers said. “I might not have all the parts that I need, but it doesn’t change how we’re intimate with one another or how we love one another or how we show affection to one another.”
Not long after the accident, Schauers was informed he wouldn’t find a way to father youngsters. He said it was “one of the hardest things” to course of.
“I didn’t cry over not having legs or a pelvis,” he said. “The only thing I cried about was not being able to have kids.”
Even though the couple is in a good groove, Schauers’s health challenges persist. He’s shown on the episode battling yet another kidney infection.
“The fear is eventually reaching a point where he’s resistant to all of the antibiotics, and then we face kidney failure,” Reiche said. “That’s kind of where, like, the life expectancy for him comes into play.”
Schauers added: “Hopefully we’ll live ’til we’re 80. We’ll see.”
He told The Post that now that filming is over, the couple is working on a “few things to improve my independence,” including prosthetic developments.
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