Logging with a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)

By Brie Weisman, OTR/L, ME AgrAbility, ME LogAbility.

Reprinted with permission from Logger’s Voice. Fall 2026.

My work with Maine AgrAbility’s LogAbility program provided me the opportunity to evaluate a logger that suffered a T4 spinal cord injury (SCI) as a result of a logging accident. The T4 vertebrae is located at roughly mid-chest height. This is the kind of trauma that used to be more prevalent in the logging industry before mechanization and safety training began a rapid increase, about 30 years ago. This was a conventional logger in a two-person family operation. 

Corey was operating alone. His phone was charging in his truck. He was on a client’s property, and had just felled a tree, when a widow maker that he hadn’t seen hit him squarely in the back, knocking him face first to the ground. His legs splayed out behind him, he propped his torso off the ground with his arms.  He had heard a crack/pop, and thought he broke his pelvis. Without his phone, he could only yell for help. Amazingly, he heard the voices of the landowners’ sons who just happened to be around, and they responded to his cries in what he guessed was five minutes after the injury. Corey asked them to reposition him with his legs in front of him in a sitting up position. Then they waited half an hour for help to arrive. He was life flighted to the hospital, and transferred to  the spinal cord trauma unit in Spalding Hospital in Massachusetts. 

Corey was told that his spinal cord had been completely severed, a life-altering incident that would leave him paralyzed from the chest down, most likely for the rest of his life. While this news would send many people into denial or profound despair, he said he immediately accepted the information, and just wanted to get on with life. The power of this attitude and how it positively affected his future cannot be overstated. He accepted the things he could not change, but more importantly, was open to changing the things he could in order to return to a higher level of independence. 

A T4 is the fourth highest thoracic vertebrae. It starts around the nipple line and affects sensory and motor function below that point. His arms and hands are unaffected. Complete severing of the spinal cord means a  less than 5% chance of walking again with the aid of devices and assistance. 

After several weeks in the rehab hospital, Corey returned home. He is currently living with his parents in their home, which they have modified to fit his needs. He is planning to have his own home built to his specifications. He is also waiting for a truck designed to meet his needs, giving him greater independence. Corey is also itching to return to logging. 

In a conventional logging operation, that poses challenges. There are many jobs that currently he can’t do. He can’t cut down trees or strap timber, but he can run a skidder or excavator. Running the machines requires upper body mobility and fine motor skills, and he has that. He can operate the controls on the machines…if he can get into them.

His plan to transfer into the logging machines is to rely on a lift he can operate himself. It’s a machine that fits in the back of his truck that will lift him out of his truck and into the logging machines. These have been around for decades, especially in agriculture. 

He is working on acquiring this through his vocational rehabilitation (VR) counselor, who will hire an Assistive Technology Provider to assess what adaptive equipment will be the most useful to Corey. VR won’t  purchase new machines, but will make accommodations to existing machines, such as getting a lift to help Corey access his work. 

There are additional concerns.  Skidder and excavator operators sit for as much as 90% of their time at work. A person with an SCI requires repositioning in their seat every 20-30 minutes in order for them to avoid pressure sores. He also has a straight catheter that involves inserting a tube into his bladder four times a day for emptying. He will have to do this in the field. 

As so many loggers have told me, they enjoy being out in the woods in nature and solitude. That interest doesn’t end when a person has a traumatic accident. Corey’s spare time was spent fishing and hunting, and he is already trying out different mobility devices that will allow him freedom to return to those activities. 

Corey’s positive attitude and determination and current assistive technology may see Corey back at work some day soon. He will have to do things differently, his day may be shortened, but he may soon be back with his Dad at work,  and hunting and fishing on weekends.

Corey is 34. In coming years, advances in technology may allow him to stand and walk with assistance in his lifetime. There are exoskeletons currently available for  folks with SCI, but they are clunky, cumbersome things designed for flat surfaces, not the rough terrain of the forest.  But- advances in both medicine and technology may some day soon provide Corey the opportunity to both work and pursue his interests with surprising mobility, on two feet.