A man who was cut in half by a forklift has answered the one question everyone is always asking.
Loren Schauers, from Montana, U.S.A., was working as a laborer when his life changed forever in September 2019.
In a horrific accident, while driving a forklift, he plummeted off the side of a bridge and fell over 50 feet to the ground below, resulting in the lower half of his body and one of his arms being severely crushed by the industrial truck.
While Loren managed to avoid death, he was forced to undergo a rare and complex procedure known as a hemicorporectomy.
A hemicorporectomy, otherwise known as a trans-lumbar amputation, involves the lower half of the body being amputated, including the bony pelvis, pelvic contents, lower extremities, and external g**italia, per the National Library of Medicine.
Loren was also forced to amputate his arm, which was squashed in the accident.
Speaking to RTL 4, he said: “The doctors gave me a choice. The question was, do you want to live or die? Do you want to live with the situation now or die with the life you had?”
Although his condition has undoubtedly impacted him, Loren hasn’t let it stop him from living his life.
He and his wife, Sabia, document their journey on YouTube, where they have over 639,000 subscribers.
In videos, the couple has opened up about their plans for the future, which include traveling and starting a family.
In one Q&A, Loren was 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?”
In response, Loren admitted he was ‘a little disappointed’ by some of them.
“A couple of friends came out of the woodworks and have been really supportive, [others] totally reverted and have been reclusive,” he said. “But it’s whatever to me, you know, I got Sabia, that’s all I need.”
Sabia agreed, adding: “Going through this together has definitely strengthened a lot of the aspects of our relationship.”
As their channel has grown in popularity, it’s led to more intrusive questions about the couple’s personal life following Loren’s procedure – such as their s** life.
Addressing this frequently asked question, Sabia told the Daily Star: “A question we get repeatedly is, ‘How do we have s** and how do we become intimate?’”
Firmly, she continued: “That is a very personal question that we are never going to answer or allude to, as it’s very disrespectful.
“You wouldn’t ask a random couple on the street how they have s** and just because our life circumstances are different, it doesn’t give people the right to ask.”
Loren is often also asked how he uses the bathroom, which is a question he has happily answered.
In a YouTube Q&A, he explained: “A colostomy which is my colon pulled out of my body so I can poop.“And I have bilateral nephrectomies, they’re tubes that go into my kidneys that drain my kidneys into bags so, therefore, that is how I poop, pee, and fart.”
A colostomy is an opening in the large intestines or a surgical procedure that creates one, per Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Sabia changes Loren’s colostomy bag daily and also showers him.
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