Plunges 37 feet. Suffers spine, rib injuries at Maryland construction site.
By RYAN ROBINSON
LANCASTER COUNTY
Updated Apr 28, 2007 12:47
An 18-year-old Ephrata man — on just his third day at a new construction job Wednesday in Port Deposit, Md. — suffered serious injuries after falling 37 feet from a scaffold plank, according to a construction company spokesman.
William "Willie" Logan Jr., a 2006 graduate of the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center at Brownstown, suffered several injuries.
His back bone splintered his spinal canal and he has multiple contusions of his lungs, two broken ribs and a split spleen, according to his mother, Tina Logan of Maple Street, Ephrata.
"His back bone splintered through his spinal canal, but didn't sever his spinal cord," Mrs. Logan said today. "He had a tingling in one leg."
Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, where he was air-lifted, said it is still too soon to tell anything about possible paralysis, Mrs. Logan said.
Doctors told her his six-hour surgery Friday night "went well so far, as well as expected," she said.
The accident occurred at a former Naval base, at a facility called Tome School, according to James McDevitt, safety director for the Gooding Group.
Two full-time employees and Logan were waterproofing a gutter ledge, he said.
Logan, a 2006 Garden Spot High School graduate, walked across a plank on a scaffold when it failed, McDevitt said.
"The plank split in two," he said. "I've never seen anything like it in 20 years."
Logan fell unimpeded to the dirt ground below, McDevitt said.
The plank was 2 inches by 12 inches and 7 feet long, McDevitt said.
The Gooding Group "shares" employees with Gooding, Simpson and Mackes of Ephrata, a sub-contractor working for Paul Risk Associates at the site, McDevitt said.
Logan technically still was employed by TempStar Staffing of Ephrata. It was his third day on the Gooding job. After completing 400 hours of service for Gooding, the company would then take over his employment if it chooses, McDevitt said.
Logan's mother said her son does not have health insurance, but McDevitt stressed that Logan would receive good care.
"I guarantee it will be taken care of," he said today.
Logan lives with his mother, but will be in the University of Maryland hospital for some time, she said.
"He will have to undergo mental and physical therapy," Mrs. Logan said. "(Doctors) said they do not want to transport him until he is fully out of the woods."
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