Parks Worker After Rare Accident: 'Tomorrow Is Not Guaranteed'

A cleanup job at Ohio's Hocking Hills State Park nearly killed 32-year-old maintenance worker Phillip Pohle, with doctors noting that many people with his injury never make it to the hospital. While pushing a large fallen tree off a park road in March, Pohle's foot got stuck on the gas pedal of the front loader he was manning, driving a thick branch into his neck, per WBNS. The impact separated his skull from his spine in what neurosurgeons call an internal decapitation, a rare injury with high on-site fatality and paralysis rates.

State natural-resources officers used a trauma kit to brace his neck as others cut the tree away with a chainsaw, then paramedics, who arrived 20 minutes later, intubated him at the scene. At Columbus' Grant Medical Center, surgeons anchored his skull to his upper spine with plates, screws, and rods; imaging showed his skull-spine gap had more than quadrupled, putting him millimeters away from severing his spinal cord. About a month later, Pohle is walking on his own and talking about returning to work—and about perspective. "Love deeply ... be patient, be kind, tomorrow is not guaranteed," he said. A GoFundMe set up to help his family with medical costs had pulled in more than $15,000 as of Thursday morning.