“A Lesson in Perspective” - Russell Claus - Workplace Tragedy Survivor - Threads of Life

Russell was in his early 20s, working as a tree planter when he was seriously hurt on a logging road in northern BC. His pelvis was shattered when a truck ran him over. His recovery included multiple reconstructive surgeries. Russell now works in health and safety.  Tune in to hear Russell’s story.

Transcript

Perley Brewer (Guest)   0:10
Welcome to today's podcast.
My name is Perry Brewer and I will be your host.
Today's podcast guest is Russell Klaus, who is here with us today to share his story of an injury that he suffered on the job and of the impact it had on his life.
Russell, thank you for agreeing to Share your story with us.

Russell Claus   0:29
Things are happening.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   0:31
Let's start our discussion with you telling us what life was like for you prior to the day you were injured on the job.

Russell Claus   0:38
Yeah.
OK, so I had just actually moved back to.
My hometown in Victoria, BC I was living there with my fiancée, Colleen at the time, and our dog and I had just started going back to university.
After taking a bit of a break and yeah, so we had recently gotten engaged.
We moved back to hometown.
I was attending university so it was very much a time in my life.
I can recall being very like future looking very much the anticipating and thinking about.
I mean, what was gonna happen next?
And and really leaning into that.
So, uh, I remember.
I remember I recall it being a very positive and and like anticipatory time, like an enthusiastic time.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   1:28
So tell us what happened that hot day in July when you were injured.

Russell Claus   1:33
Yeah.
So the sort of quick and dirty version of it would be I was out tree planting up in northern British Columbia.
And so that's what I would do to make money to, for tuition, for going to university.
Like I just gone back and and I've been out there a few years so I wasn't new to the job and it was the last planting day of the season that we had.
So where I worked, we usually had three months of tree planting time, usually about 8090 days of work.
So this is the last day of the season and me and my planting partner who I've been working with most of the year wanted to really push that day to hit a certain number of trees planted.
That's typically how tree planters motivate themselves.
Is a setting numerical goals for trees planted today and then trying to get that number.
So we were pushing pretty hard.
It was in late July, so by northern BC standards it was pretty warm and I started to get nauseous to the day because I was getting heat exhaustion or suffering from the effects of it.
And then as we were leaving the cut block head back to camp at the end of the day.
And you know, we'd.
We'd gathered up a bunch of crewmates in our truck as well.
It was an A big SUV, basically, and everyone was pretty excited and loud because we're leaving the cut block for the last time.
This is for a tree planter.
It's basically like Christmas morning to be at the end of the season and so the level of is pretty high, but I wanted him to pull over so I could throw up and we kind of missed the bigger landing that would have been more giving us more space because, you know, it was too loud.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   3:03
Hmm.

Russell Claus   3:16
He couldn't quite hear me.
So we eventually did pull over on a what's called a pullout for like a radio controlled logging Rd that allows up traffic to get out of the way of down traffic.
That's carrying logs, so we pulled out one of these things.
I got out of the truck.
There's a bit of confusion.
The driver loses sight of me.
He wants to pull further into the landing to get further away from the logging trucks that are coming in behind us and in the process of that ends up running me over.
Well, while I'm down on the ground, being sick to my stomach.
So yeah, and then the the truck sort of ran right over my hips and ended up breaking my pelvis in five places and severed my urethra away from my bladder inside my body.
So pretty nasty injury.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   4:10
So by the time he realized that he had run over ya, you know, and he stopped.
Was the truck still on top of you?

Russell Claus   4:20
Yeah, that's right.
So the front passenger tire ran me over and then mean at that point there was immediate stop at the vehicle because it was clear that something horrible.
What just happened?
So I was underneath the vehicle between the wheels.
And actually the first thing I kind of came up on behind the wheels, like a piece of dough under a rolling pin.
You know, so it kind of rolled up behind it and then hit the bottom of the truck.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   4:42
Hmm.

Russell Claus   4:44
And the remember actually the first thing I felt, I mean obviously I felt the truck running over, but it didn't really hurt.
It was too sort of much sensational at once, but I did remember feeling the exhaust of the bottom of the truck burning my shoulder because that's how where I had kind of ended up. Yep.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   5:01
What's the track loaded at the time?

Russell Claus   5:04
And we didn't have any.
We didn't have much gear or equipment in it, but we did have, I think seven or eight people in the truck.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   5:11
OK.

Russell Claus   5:12
Yeah.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   5:13
So were they able to get you out?

Russell Claus   5:16
So one of the ironies of this particular incident was that I was the primary first aider for the company.
So the only person actually who had ever who had who was working for the company at the time, who had ever responded to a situation so serious that we had to emergency evacuate somebody, was me.
So the only person who actually had any experience getting anyone out of this situation before.
So that kind of complicated things a bit.
But yeah, we it was kind of a life over limb situation.
You know, once I had kind of thought about.
So in British Columbia, we have an occupational first aid program that is, uh, administered, not necessarily delivered, but administered by looks like DC.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   5:56
Hmm.

Russell Claus   6:02
And so I was in alefa Level 3, right?

Perley Brewer (Guest)   6:02
Yeah.

Russell Claus   6:05
So 75 ish hour course and transportation endorsement, stuff like that.
So at the time the methodology was to consider the mechanism of injury and that would determine your transport category, right?
And so OK, it looks kind of funny thinking back.
Obviously we went over by a truck is probably a rapid transit category, but my mind is still going through the process of, OK, So what happened and how much force was applied and how bad is this right now, right.
And so, uh, we realized pretty quickly that this is pretty bad and I need to get going to the hospital school cause I can and I couldn't move my legs, which obviously was a bit alarming, but I couldn't move my feet.
Um and so this is a symptom of pelvic fracture.
But I wasn't really put all that together right now.
I just.
OK well not parallelized.
Let's just go from there.
And so, again, yeah, life overland, there was no way to move the truck.
So I just told him to grab my arms and yank me out.
So they just dragged me out from under the truck because, yeah, any movement forward or back to the truck had the likelihood of rerunning me over again.
So yeah, they dragged me out by my arms there and then.
Uh, I kind of helped talk them through.
Packaging me and we, we pulled all the the seats and stuff out of the truck so yeah.
So the vehicle around me over was also doubled as our emergency transport vehicle, so the medic for the company got run over by the ambulance.
And yes, so like I said already, but yeah, so then we packaged me up there on the on the side of the road there and threw me were about 56 1/2 kilometers from the highway.
The upper logging road and then from there we will probably about 15-8 to 15 kilometers from town.
So in that case it was going to be faster for us to drive than to try to get a an area back.
That's my Ambulance will come up that way.
So uh threw me in the back of the truck and off we went.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   8:06
What was it like?
Must have been almost surreal as as serious as you were injured and drained at the same time.
Talk your coworkers.
Into what to do next?

Russell Claus   8:18
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's one of the parts you know.
That doesn't really seem real.
You know, this is about.
This all happened almost 15 years ago now, and looking back at you know it doesn't seem real the way it happened that way.
And you know, when I and I do give talks to threads of life, often, you know, to four threads of life rather, you know, four schools or workplaces, right.
And I tend to class apart over a little bit, but don't want it to be too much done.
I kind of like the quote unquote heroics that happened that day and more on the the impacts of the injury and stuff like that.
And you know, to preventability of the incident.
But yeah, it was pretty surreal and I was making mistakes at the same time as panic was kind of ebbing in at the edge of my mind.
You know, thinking of some things that happened, they couldn't get the oxygen tank and the fittings together to get me the OT.
They couldn't get the the hose fitted to the right pieces to get the from the air from the tank to the mask and I was being held in C spine by somebody and so they're asking me like, how do we fit this in together?
But I can't see it and one of my coworkers holding C spine to try to keep my head and spinal line.
So I had to talk them out of letting me go from smoke.
Could turn my head and see the fittings and then eventually just told the duct tape the thing together because I didn't know where the fitting was.
Obviously can go looking in my gear to find it.
So you know, stuff like that was happening.
So it was pretty we were shooting from the hip a little bit and I ended up being really, really fortunate that I didn't have, you know, an unsupported spinal injury or anything like that because it was a couple of decisions that we made at the time, sort of in the heat of the moment that you may have had a lot of lasting consequences on me if I find that been injured in a slightly different way.
But yeah, it was something about, you know, the the, um, the adrenaline, obviously.
And so the the the sense of necessity, like there was an element of like I can't, I really can't afford to to not be mentally present here or is gonna be really bad for me and not that that lots of people in that situation have haven't stayed awake.
You know, those are confluence of factors.
Obviously that allowed me to do that.
But um, yeah, it was a pretty interesting to have a or surreal, I guess, as you said, to have, you know, your coworker suddenly become your rescuers and be coaching them through it so.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   10:32
So when people talk about the importance of first aid training, truly it did save your life.

Russell Claus   10:36
Hmm.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   10:39
In fact, you saved your life by the knowledge you had.

Russell Claus   10:40
Hello.
I think I mean.
Whether or not you know my life was saved, it definitely the outcomes are definitely better.
You know, like I was able to get to help a lot faster than if we had been waiting for someone else to arrive.
And and you know, in terms of their first aid training and you know that was I think my third recertification, second or third recertification and the drilling and the practicing and the doing, it was a first aid intensive job.
I don't know what you know about tree planting, but people get injured a lot and you know, and that had really helped.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   11:14
Hmm.

Russell Claus   11:18
And that's, you know, that's possibly a reason why I was able to think as clearly as I was at the time was that, you know, my brain was going through methodical steps of, OK, if this is true were to happen to somebody else, what would be the first thing I need to think about?
And then that would inform my next decision which inform my next decision as opposed to trying to do everything all at once.
Um, you know, sometimes I've seen it over the years.
Not that I do a lot of first date anymore, but once when I did, you know, people kind of locking up sometimes and it often it's because they can't think of the first step to do what you can get that first one out of the way.
Then it starts to flow kind of like dominos, but um the pressure of having to make that first move and kind of begin begin to move the decision making train down a certain path can be pretty, pretty intense when somebody's, you know life or live near on the line.
Um, but yeah.
Luckily, I was confident enough to make some pretty bold choices right away, like in terms of getting out from under the vehicle and how to Get Me Out of supine position, et cetera.
But then after that a lot.
I got to give a lot of credit to the people who were there, who are doing a lot of work and really, really, they're the ones who picked me up and loaded me out.
I was just talking.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   12:34
So the vehicle that ran over you was what?
A van truck.

Russell Claus   12:37
It was a GMC Yukon so kind of like a large size SUV, yeah.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   12:40
OK.
Well, so by the time you get to the highway, was there an ambulance there waiting for you or did they take you to the hospital in the vehicle you were in?

Russell Claus   12:51
We went right to the hospital and the vehicle I was in. Yeah.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   12:54
OK, So what happened next?

Russell Claus   12:58
Yeah, so after that, now at this point, you know I'm a little bit more loopy.
So I, you know, shock headset in much more by this point the road to drive in was also pretty rough because my pelvis was broken right in five places.
And I was strapped to a piece of plywood essentially in a spine board.
And then strapped to the bottom of an SUV and we were driving at a pretty high rated speed over an unpaved locking Rd.
So you can imagine that combination of factors made it a pretty harrowing drive into the hospital.
And another thing that was on my mind at the time too, was again.
Now here's the dark side.
A little bit of the having some some knowledge about, you know, medical elements.
I began to kind of do a self assessment on myself.
Physically, you sort of palpating the injured area kind of figure out what was going on and why could I move my feet?
But I couldn't move my legs.
Yeah, and um.
And so, because my Teresa had been severed from my bladder, it was filling with blood.
And urine etcetera and.
And so it was getting my abdomen was getting hard, the rigid and I mean I I wasn't thinking it was a bladder injury.
I was thinking well I just got run over by, you know, an 8000 LB.
Vehicle, whatever it was probably ruptured my spleen or my liver.
One of my bloody organs.
And so I was kind of doing mental math and my head thinking, well, I'm going to a small Regional Hospital right now who maybe doesn't have the capacity was kind of emergency surgery on me and maybe I'm not going to actually live through the end of this trip.
So, um, obviously I did and it was my platter, not my liver, for instance.
But that's a sticky thought that could kind of find its way into the back of your mind and hang around for a long time.
That with those feelings that are associated with that kind of thing.
Um, so I wasn't feeling super optimistic.
I would say by the time after going through that logging Rd run with my broken pelvis and having those kind of thoughts in my head.
But how we got to the hospital, so I've become quite passive.
I just point out a call and yeah, but we got there and they listed me up out of the off the stretcher onto the Gurney.
I can remember that because it was a bit of a shock from moving from one platform to the other and then there Wheeling me into the hospital and it's kind of like just like on TV, the double doors are blowing openness.
They're throwing me into cutting all my clothes off and putting I eased into my arms and ask me questions and kind of a flurry of activity at this point.
So, but I'm kind of in and out of lucidity because, yeah, having kind of been out of the situation where had to do anything, which is a riding in the back of the truck, I kind of like let go a little bit more.
And yeah, so they were able to do some some quick tests and xrays and ultrasounds or whatever to figure out what was going on here.
And so um pixel problem when you're not dying, but you do need to go immediately to the next to the closest big hospital which was 4 hours away.
It's a BC's a big province, right?
So especially up north, so we were in a town called Smithers and we had to go to Prince George, which was 4 hours down the highway.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   16:05
Yeah.

Russell Claus   16:09
So they were getting Ambulance rated, taking over there and I was going to need surgery pretty much right away to to realign my several view resource.
So it didn't remains severed.
And yeah, I was able to get a call to my fiance down South and Victoria and tried to tell her I was OK, but that was a pretty tough one because we both really knew I wasn't, you know, so you kind of have these platitudes.
We telling your loved one?
Yeah, everything to be fine.
But you know, there's absolutely no karanti whatsoever that is gonna be fine.
So yeah.
And so she was shot.
So she started making her way up north.
Basically immediately, right.
So. Um, yeah.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   16:51
So what would you called?

Russell Claus   16:51
So she got but.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   16:52
What was going through your head at that point?

Russell Claus   16:55
You know, that was a lot of.
That's probably where I started to become pretty scared.
Um, because everything else had been very.
Um.
Like action oriented like we had to do things right.
We had to get out from the vehicle, we had to get me immobilized and package.
Get the oxygen.
Get me into the vehicle.
Get the vehicle to the hospital.
Uh, those are things that just had it to be done.
Then, once I was kind of in the care of the the doctors and nurses, I was really anything else I had to do and all I was doing was getting information which was like, OK, well, it looks like your pelvis is been broken.
His shoulders broken you, Aretha, is broken.
We need to put.
I ended up getting a suprapubic catheter, which is sent through your abdomen under belly, but into your bladder.
So they're starting to do some pretty painful procedures to me to start to stabilize my condition.
We got to send you into Prince George hours away by yourself, like no support.
You're just going with with the V Ambulance drivers and the MTA to get surgery.
Uh, we don't know what's going to happen to you, basically, right?
So that was.
Yeah.
And then I I did travel, you know, 4 hours and I was mostly asleep for that cause at this point.
Obviously I'm hooked up to morphine as well.
Um.
And then I woke up in the Prince George Hospital, um alone.
Kind of in the dark corner of some wing, I'm not sure where it was like it is an intake.
So it might have been the ER.
Not sure, but alone and just lying there and now I could really start to feel and again at this point other than when I was moving around or they were moving me around to take an extra or something, I still wasn't really feeling the damage to my pelvis and hip area.
Please.
But then, once I was lying in this hospital bed impression, I could really feel it radiating up like that broken bone.
Feeling and and.
Yeah.
And the nurses or doctors would come by and look at my chart and would ask, like, how did this happen?
And I could really have an answer.
I was like, it happened quickly.
Is what happened and yeah, you became kind of clear that there wasn't the that I was pretty badly hurt.
And you know, the prognosis wasn't clear, right?
So particularly with the soft tissue stuff, the more I talked to the doctor as we were beginning to get clear what was going to happen to me in terms of surgery and how long are probably going to be in the hospital and that sort of stuff that, you know, what are you gonna need?
External pinning.
You know what are gonna be able to walk and stand normally again, run, jump and play as one of my doctors would later say.
And then in terms of soft tissue damage, you know, would I be able to live my life without a catheter?
Uh, you know?
And that wasn't clear.
Uh at the time.
So yeah, then it was it was getting pretty scary.
I'll assume pretty, pretty helpless.
You know, I was 25 years old at the time.
So you know prime of prime of your youth essentially right?
So I was feeling pretty humbled.
Pretty, pretty scared, pretty alone.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   19:52
Did you ever think you were going to die?

Russell Claus   19:55
Just that, like I said in that on that trip in from the cut block to the hospital when I am was palpating around and felt that rigidity in my abdomen and that's when I thought, OK, well, that's gotta be a spleen or liver or something because my, you know, my guts basically had just been run over it. Right.
Like, that's probably what that is.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   20:15
Right.

Russell Claus   20:15
I mean, I wouldn't.
You know, it never crossed my mind.
It would be my bladder, I thought, well, you know, trying to get to the Smithers Bulkley Valley Hospital.
Is that going to be enough to to save me in that situation or not?
And so that was, that was probably the time where I thought that was happening.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   20:30
So what's today an issue you have to do is far as operations go.

Russell Claus   20:35
What kind of operations do they need?

Perley Brewer (Guest)   20:36
You know.

Russell Claus   20:37
Yeah.
OK, so I needed to have an operation.
Um, right away within the well.
It took a couple days because, you know, I was not.
I was stable.
So you know as life threatening injuries or come in those surgeries get moved around.
But a couple of days, but I only get paid one.
That was like a year Russell realignment.
So with that super pubic catheter going through my Admin allowing me to avoid my bladder, they had to get another catheter, a Foley catheter, which is the kind you think of when you think of a catheter into my urethra, which we require surgery because the two, there's a dose interruption in the urethra somewhere down the line, right.
So that was there and that basically pushed the two torn sort of damaged ends of my Aretha together so that they could heal.
And then about 6.
Five months later, in January, I had another surgery.
So at one point that had healed, they pulled out the Foley catheter, based said like, well, if you can pee, let's see if that works.
And I was able to but then scar tissue because you know, the interruption was not a clean cut. Right.
So then scar tissue formed and blocked my urethra, which was what they were anticipating was likely to happen, and so then?
So then I had another surgery in January that was to remove that scar tissue and put two clean ends together.
That would hopefully have less scar tissue and then hope that that worked and that would be determined whether or not I could live my life without a catheter.
Uh, and that was a successful surgery.
But at the time they were saying, you know, like 5050 ish.
So that was a pretty nerve wracking.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   22:13
Hmm.
So from the day you were injured, I read an article the other day that made reference to seven months that you were sort of going through different operations and different procedures.

Russell Claus   22:27
Yeah.
Yeah.
So so I'm this run over on July 22nd and then had that second surgery.
Now I can't remember exact date but it but the the world Juniors were happening so it was around that you know.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   22:39
Hmm.

Russell Claus   22:40
So after Christmas and then and then after that surgery, I had to, you know, have to Foley Catheter moved and wait to see if it worked and then you know then an extra couple weeks just to be sure.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   22:42
OK.

Russell Claus   22:53
And then they had to remove the the Super pubic catheter, which I'd had, which had become my close friend because I had it in my abdomen for seven months.
Um, and then that was removed and then at that point it said, OK, you know, the point would reach the point in my recovery, which is now it's kind of up to you, right.
So the medical procedures are done, we hope.
And so now it's like Physio and conditioning and just trying to to get back to whatever your new normal is going to be.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   23:22
There was a safe to say.
They were a long seven months.

Russell Claus   23:26
Oh yeah, yeah, definitely.
You know that something?
It's like again, like, you know, having been 25 and being pretty, pretty fit and active, you know, being a tree planter and whatnot, you know well and being pretty independent and just been independent minded person that was a big change that you know I became completely dependent on other people.
I was in a wheelchair for, you know, a month and 1/2 or two months or so.
And then after that, you know, as I got more and more mobile, I was on crutches, so I wasn't able to walk a whole day without some kind of um mobility aid until December.
And so that really changed a lot of my day-to-day experience really became a serious and significant appreciation for accessibility issues in and around our world, for sure.
Um, but also like the medication.
So as I'm paying two different kinds of painkillers for different kinds of situations.
Um, you know the the damage to the bladder and the urethra and stuff like that, you know, made like not to get too into the TMI here.
But you know some body functions is pretty unpleasant.
Pretty painful and then?
Um, yeah, and have getting there was a lot of nerve damage that went ran down through my SSI nerve because it goes through the pelvis.
Right.
So that's one of the lingering things I still have on on that one side of my body.
But at the time, it was pretty pretty intrusive, you know, I ended getting, they called Restless Legs syndrome and, you know, difficult, you know, painful to sit for a long period of time.
But I couldn't do anything but sit, um and yeah, so.
And then even after I got the uh, the final surgery and it was, it was successful.
That's where they kind of actually, when I would say the psychological impacts began to present themselves more because I become less focused on um, you know, the the physical recovery, like this sort of necessity of that, it kind of mirrored in a way how when I was on the the landing at the entry site, I was very focused on helping me get away from there to the hospital.
But then, as we were on our way and I kind of had less to do.
Um, then I kind of got into the sort of darker headspace of what was happening, and it kind of happened on a larger scale as well.
After the medical procedures, the operations were done.
Then I began to really relive a lot of what was happening and what had happened and how painful it had been and how scary it was not, you know, I began to manifest some symptoms of PTSD from that.
And on the other hand, too, and this is something kind of interesting, and I sometimes talk about this in my in my talks with the sorts of life depending on the, you know, reading the room, but there, there, there was really low lows in that seven months.
But that also because of that contrast that put them in the highs and very, very sharp relief as well.
So I can remember when I did take my first unsupported step in my living room.
You know, me and my fiance at time like, yes, you know, almost have tears of joy.
At the same time, when, like, WOW, things are are actually moving and you know to imagine six months earlier a crying out of happiness because I took a step, you know, when I would be planting 3000 trees a day in the woods. Right.
So that's a very a time of extremes for sure.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   26:49
So to go back for a second to the you know you're in the hospital and your fiance arrives, must have been terribly traumatic on her as well.

Russell Claus   26:55
Hmm.
Yeah.
No, absolutely.
And this is actually, you know, kind of a definitely something I do focus on in my talks with threads of life because I recovered so well.
Um, you know, one of things I look OK what are the impacts around you when that happens, right?
So yeah, she was, you know, that was a really, extremely difficult time for her, you know, not only the fact that, you know, her one of her most loved people in the world is, you know, seriously, seriously injured and in agony.
But also, you know, having to look pretty young switch to becoming not just a partner but a caregiver.
And I'm pretty helpless too for a long a lot of this period of time.
You know, and you know, and I mean, that's taking me to doctor's appointments all the time after I have surgeries and things like that sort of nursing me back to health and helping me get dressed, you know, helping me go to the bathroom.
Um, and then of course the uncertainty of, OK, well, here's this.
You know, we're about to get married.
We're doing stuff and it's like, well, I mean, I is Russ gonna be permanently disabled, especially given the nature of my injury, will be able to pee.
Are we ever going to have sex again?
You know, these are pretty heavy questions to be asking yourself on your way to to getting married soon.
Yeah.
And you know, there's a lot of stress, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of pressure, a lot of demands on her.
And you know that, um, those affected her, you know?
You know, mental Wellness, I would say, like long after I had recovered to, you know, my new normal.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   28:38
Sir, during your talks you talk about obviously receiving good medical care, but you also talk about the mental and emotional support.

Russell Claus   28:47
Hmm.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   28:47
Obviously, you're gonna say you leaned upon anyone else.
Did you lean upon as well or was there for you?

Russell Claus   28:54
Um, I.
Well, I was kind of fortunate in that I had moved back to my hometown and like I had said so.
So in that case I did have a kind of a broader social network around me, including family and longtime friends.
So I was really quite fortunate in that sense that, you know, if I had still lived in the small town, I had just moved back from in the interior of BC where we knew very few people would probably be a lot harder.
But yeah, lots of friends were around my family.
Almost my entire nuclear family and my grandparents were all in Victoria still, so we end them a lot.
I'm I my apartment that we live in at the time didn't have an elevator and we were on the 2nd floor.
So for a period of time that I had to stay at my grandma's house, who did have an accessible ground floor living situation?
So you know that was huge already, right?
I could stay somewhere with people that I loved and I knew um, without having to be in some other kind of unfamiliar setting in order just to be able to move in and out of a house.
Right? So.
Yeah, very helpful.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   29:57
Did the accident have any effect or impact on your work colleague originate or was a nature of, you know, somewhere work sort of thing that they disappeared and sort of moved on?

Russell Claus   30:03
Yeah.
No, no.
So I mean I I think I had been working for this company for I think four or five years at this point.
So you know, we have become pretty good friends and you know people who go back year over year, it's not random.
You don't.
You don't throw apply to the company and get randomly assigned to crews like the crews will hire their own people.
Sort of like a feudal system.
And so, you know your boss.
You know your colleagues and my my planting partner who I planted with almost every day.
So for, you know, 90 ish days.
Probably almost 100 and yeah so anyway.
But on that, you know, we worked together almost every day, all day.
We kind of live together in a camp.
He was the driver.
Uh and so?
Yeah, he was pretty deeply affected by that.
And I know that he was defeated because we know we we stayed in contact and you know, years later we worked together again manually 5-6 years later.
And still talked about it, you know?
And and yeah, so I know he he suffered some pretty significant mental health issues.
And and I I'm permitted to talk about that because he sent that in a letter to me and say, you know, since you're gonna be doing these talks about this is OK.
But you know that he had in self harm and suicidal elements to that as well.
Based on the memory and the guilt of what had happened, right, so and a lot of what helped him and I both moved through.
That was just talking about it.
So um, but yeah, and the company itself and and sort of the industry as well was it's a fairly well known.
Incident at the time, it's been a while now, but at the time it was kind of one of the bigger ones around that time.
And you know, it kind of, I would say it might have been a bit of a watershed or um, a break point where health and safety, at least in our region of British Columbia where we worked and like are sort of like sized and motivated companies began to sort of shift into a more professional.
Um, a more sophisticated maybe is better way to put up more sophisticated or process than it had been there was.
You know, I would say Trump, I think is still not as highly regulated as other resource sectors have worked in since.
But um, we're highly monitored.
Perhaps.
But but it was kind of a Wild West situation when I started, you know, in the early 2000s and, you know, not just because of my incident, but it was one of the things that was adding to this.
There's a number of factors, but that was adding to this shift to a more methodical and more systematic and more um.
A complete safety culture and environment and you know packages, so speak.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   32:51
Sometimes in health and safety presentations where here people make the comment about all a few seconds could change your life and the life of your family, how would you answer that question?

Russell Claus   32:59
Hmm.
Well, I mean, that's hard to argue, right?
That's, you know, and you know, one of the things I think about is that, you know, it took a second lap, you know, lapse in concentration and uh, didn't take long, you know, probably took less than, yeah, 2-3 seconds for that of you to run me over.
And even though again, even though I recovered really well, I mean that the the reverberation says that went on through other people for a long time and a lot of stretch and you know the big thing too is that you know, can't be taken back, right?
No matter what that INSTANT happened and it's there's no going back from that and it's just, you know that, that, that train left the station as soon as it occurred.
And you know, it really was just a bit of luck.
Seems a bit odd to say that I was lucky having been run over by a truck in the middle of the woods.
But you know, it was just locked that I didn't actually end up dying there, face down in the dirt.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   34:04
How do you deal with all the what ifs that people often say run around in your mind during an event like this?

Russell Claus   34:07
Definitely.
Yeah.
So I mean, I definitely went down that rabbit hole at first, for sure.
What if I had been put to the left?
Or what if we had stopped at that first landing?
I wanted to stop at and you know what?
If this would have that, but it was really kind of two, two trains of thought.
I keep seeing Trump using a lot of train analogy today, but two lines of thinking that kind of helped me get through that which was.
Uh, and you know, I don't know if I can give anyone any coaching on how to do this.
I think is how?
How?
How people's brains worked, and that's a very individual and personal thing.
But for me, one was that you know, it just what if it happened differently?
Well, it didn't, right?
Like it, it happened this way, right?
So yeah, maybe if I had been, you know, a foot to the left, it would have different, but I wasn't.
And you know, maybe we had stopped the other landing, but we didn't.
So it did happen this way.
And so there wasn't.
It's a fruitless exercise in my mind to worry about what have differently because it was this way.
And So what we can control is not what could have been, but what's going to be right.
So what's happening right now?
So I can provide it influence and do my best to make you know the most positive outcomes of my situation.
Now, knowing that that split point where the event happened just did happen that way, and then the other side of it too.
And I wrote a bit, I think I wrote an alcohol for one of the types of like, newsletters about.
This was that it could have also been worse, right?
So if we say, well, you know what, if one thing had been a little bit different would have been so much better.
Well, yeah, but also if one thing has been a little different in so much worse, right.
And in my case it's very easy to sort of think about that because my injuries, although bad, could clearly it's not a stretch of the imagination to think of a couple of ways which that could have been very reasonably and very predictably much worse, right. So.
Yeah, maybe if I know I had been afoot to the left, it would have been better and maybe I had been a foot to the right.
It would have been worse.
And if we're talking about what is and chance and what it could have like, there's no reason to say that there's way, way more good outcomes versus potential bad outcomes that could come if it had been different.
So you know, an inch to the left or into the right.
Maybe I'd be dead.
Maybe I would be alive.
Maybe I would not have been injured.
Maybe I'd be worse injured.
It's, you know, there's no way to know.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   36:37
From the point of view of a prevention message, when you do a talk to a group of people, what's the main message you tried to get across relative to, you know, helping folks understand what they need to be doing and or not doing so that they don't end up in a situation like you ended up in?

Russell Claus   36:53
Hmm.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, work is so varied and there's so many different, you know, ways that things can go wrong and things to think about.
So I try not to get too much into specifics.
I do talk a little bit about, you know, things that the company I work for changed over time as a result that you know that we're specific policies or practices.
But I mean, the main thing I try to reinforce is is that.
That no going back element of it.
You mentioned the three seconds change like forever like that really is real.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   37:22
No.

Russell Claus   37:24
That like once this thing happens, if there's there's no real, there's no do over right, there's no reset. It's not.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   37:25
Who?

Russell Claus   37:29
You can't really try it again like once these things happen, they happen and they happen in a final way in irrevocable, right?
There's no all the what ifs in the world after the fact.
Don't undo it.
Right.
So there's that and just had to really impress that.
That's why prevention is so critical is that there's you can practice prevention and try it again and do different things.
But as soon as that incident happens, then you're that's written in stone or written in blood and.
Another thing you know, I really tried to talk about is is thinking about work that we're doing.
You know what?
Whatever it is.
And that sounds kind of.
Platitudinous but really thinking about what are we doing?
And you know, what are the dangers?
You know, kind of what you want.
You can call a job hazard analysis or FHA or whatever in the OHS lingo, but taking the time to think about what's potentially at risk here.
What are the hazards?
Am I comfortable?
You know, because of the nature of my injury and how old I was, I often I'm talking to younger audiences as well and just say, you know, really wanna emphasize, you know, if you're not sure, you know, if something feels funny, you know, to to, to make note of it, to, to ask, to stop right.
It's better to stop and think or stop and ask and get clarification or support.
Then it is to go for it and then one of these things happen, right?
Because, you know, I know what it's like to be young in the workplace.
That the competition or competency is the capital that the currency of the workplace right, you don't want to be the new guy and feel like you don't know what you're doing and ask questions.
You think maybe you're stupid, but you know your life is at stake?
You know very real way so.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   39:09
So how was the threads of life, which I know you're a speaker for them, how have they helped you with your recovery?

Russell Claus   39:13
Hmm.
Yeah. So.
I kind of have an interesting way in which I came into thirds of like, not interesting but different.
I suppose than than the average because it wasn't during my sort of recovery active recovery phase, it was many years later that once I had become a OHS practitioner as my job and that was at a conference um as an attendee and saw a fruits of life speaker telling their story about their injury.
And I thought, well, hey, I I kind of wanna do that.
I wanna get involved with that.
So that's how I approached threads of life for the first time.
And so I kind of wasn't really thinking about it in a way like how is it going to help me and more like how can it be a vehicle to help others.
But through the course of doing it, I realized I actually was stuff that that it would helping with.
So I always felt a little bit embarrassed about how well I recovered.
I didn't feel like I had a right to taking up the space in conversation with people who had been badly injured or had lost loved ones, you know, seeing that, you know, we're on, I'm sitting on a video call right now.
If we were talking in up in real life, you'd see that I don't really have any mobility impairments or you wouldn't know that this had happened.
Right.
And so I didn't really feel entitled to that.
And I felt again kind of embarrassed or like some kind of shame in that.
Um, um, I kind of got away with something, so to speak.
Right and.
And and I was uncomfortable talking about a lot of different parts of it because of that.
And and sitting sitting with with my own experience and being able to really process all of it in an honest and.
Um, you know, honest with myself.
Way.
Um, but then, you know, spending time in terms of life and meeting people.
Who again?
I mean to me, just like heroic people who survived things that I can't even imagine.
And then having those people be completely accepting, you know, and and showing me that, you know, we all in this tapestry of people who have been affected by workplace tragedy all have, you know, an important part to play and have a right to an ownership over their experience and.
And that everything is important and all the stories add to the, you know, the singular voice of trying to break these things from happening.
So um turns out that I did have some things that I hadn't quite worked through and thinking I was calling in for completely altruistic reasons.
If it's actually ended up helping me with my own healing journey as well, because you know and again, that's one thing I probably also thought or came to realize was that, uh, it didn't.
I healing doesn't really end from these.
Sort of things.
It changes, it changes the character and it changes what it means to you and to others, and it changes what it looks like, but it continues.
Um.
And so that was very helpful.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   42:11
So to finish off her Podcast, I guess it sort of a combination of two questions in one.
Well, what are you doing today and how are you doing today?

Russell Claus   42:21
Yeah.
So I mean, I think I'm doing well, I feel well.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   42:25
Hmm.

Russell Claus   42:26
Well, like I said, from my recovered quite well for my for my injuries.
So on the physical side of things, you know quite well recovered was able to hike the West Coast Trail a few years after the injury.
You know, it's sort of like a real statement moment for myself.
Um and.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   42:42
OK.

Russell Claus   42:46
Uh, yeah, I feel, you know, my my career is going well.
That was one thing too, so that shifted my interest in my career after that incident and I began to focus on.
I had sort of an academic interest in health and safety, and so I ended up completing my undergrad.
And wrote an undergraduate thesis on health and safety and tree planting, which obviously at that point was very dear to my heart.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   43:08
Yeah.

Russell Claus   43:09
And then carried on to do a Masters degree and wrote about sort of why workers take risks.
In in a different kind of resource sector work that I worked in and that.
Moved on.
And to a career working in health and safety and that's that career has treated me well and I really enjoy the work.
You know, it's like a vacation, I would say in the sense that I feel purpose and driven and that I have, uh, check the work that I do is inherently valuable, not just extrinsically valuable.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   43:37
Hmm.

Russell Claus   43:48
And then of course, that led me to my volunteer activities with the sides of life.
I'm actually on the Board of Directors as well at this point now.
So you know it's.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   43:54
Hmm.

Russell Claus   43:57
I wouldn't say that I would not undo it if I could.
I probably would still try not to get injured if I could go back in time, but having known that it happened and again unable to take you back, I think it's been able to, you know, be sort of a way to focus and give me my, my life, a lot of purpose.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   44:02
Yeah, yeah.
The.

Russell Claus   44:20
And yeah, and so I guess you have two other question.
What do I do?
I work as a health and safety coordinator for the Parks candidate agency.
So which is another job?

Perley Brewer (Guest)   44:28
Great.

Russell Claus   44:29
I love, yeah.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   44:30
Well, look, Russell, thank you very much for joining us on our podcast today.
We certainly appreciate you taking the time to Share your story with our listeners and keep up your good work.

Russell Claus   44:41
Thanks so much.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   44:43
So that's it today folks.
Thank you for listening to our Podcast.
Stay safe.
We will see you next week.
Just.