'Beyond failure': Battle Ground teen loses legs at school-based work program

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‘Beyond failure’: Battle Ground teen loses legs at school-based work program
Thousands of students enroll in work-for-credit programs, but a 16-year-old’s case shows life-altering consequences of risky jobs and murky oversight.

By Lizz Giordano, CascadePBS.org, Crosscut
Published: October 26, 2024, 6:05am
Updated: October 28, 2024, 8:47am


Derrik lost both his legs in June 2023, the summer after his sophomore year of high school, while working for a large construction company in southwestern Washington as part of a school program that allowed him to earn class credit for hours on the job. (Lizz Giordano/Cascade PBS) Photo Gallery

Call Mom, thought Derrik as he lay alone in the tall grass, bleeding heavily from what remained of his legs. No answer on her phone. He dialed his boss, offsite at the time. The call cut out after a few seconds, so Derrik texted him a photo of the gruesome scene, and started screaming for help.

The 16-year-old worker began the morning guiding a walk-behind trenching machine through a field, cleaving a 6-inch-deep ditch for a new fence line. The trencher lurched and strained as the blade slashed through the loosely packed dirt. His two closest co-workers, both wearing ear protection, faced away from where he dug. ... Derrik kept the trencher running as he stepped forward, alongside the machine, to check his progress. Then the ditch sidewall suddenly collapsed, pulling his legs into the churning blades.

“I do remember yelling for a while,” he recalled later. “It could have been 10 seconds. Could have been five minutes.” ... Alerted by their boss, workers rushed to Derrik’s aid and called 911. Derrik’s mom, who had stepped away from her phone to fold laundry, called him back just as the paramedics arrived. ... “He told me he got hurt,” Derrik’s mom recalled. ... “I told Mom not to get angry … upset,” he interrupted, then paused. “What did I say?” ... They could not recollect the exact wording. But Derrik does remember his mom panicking. ... “I cut my legs off. Then, of course, she yells at me.”

Sitting in the family’s living room a few miles outside Battle Ground, Derrik’s memory of his injury remains fuzzy. As he recently recounted that day in June 2023, his parents filled in gaps: a helicopter lifeflight to a Portland hospital; fits of thirst and exhaustion from the blood loss; a room full of loved ones waiting for him after emergency surgery; and waking up with both legs amputated — one above the knee, the other below.

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