Mt. Hood Community College maintenance employee Lee Hager is back to work after an accident on campus last August left him with cracked ribs, a cracked pelvis, a punctured lung, a broken wrist and months of recovery.

On Aug. 3, Hager was working on a lift in the gym. The lift was about 15 to 20 feet high and everything seemed to be going fine until he tried to bring the lift down. “I was coming down, the lift failed and threw me out, and I landed on my face on the gym floor,” Hager said Monday, Jan. 31. The cast on his right wrist was the only obvious evidence now that he is still healing from the incident that occurred over six months ago. “Things I have left: I’m waiting for the cast to come off, I’m going through a medical process to get my vision checked so I can start driving college vehicles again, and … some cosmetic dental work — then I’ll be done.”

Hager tells a story about going to see a doctor in November who had treated him early on. The doctor couldn’t believe it when Hager was able to walk into the office on his own. “I’ve recovered real well. I pushed myself through recovery.”
After his body started healing, Hager entered a program to ensure his brain was okay. “I went through the BIRC (Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center) program. That was intense brain testing and training. Eight hours a day, all they did was test the brain and check you out mentally, your capabilities mentally.

“While I was in BIRC in recovery, the college called me up, said ‘Lee, (you’ve applied) for this supervisor position, are you still interested?’” He had applied for the position of supervisor for the maintenance shop and plant operations prior to the accident, and had been acting as the interim supervisor until someone could be hired permanently. Hager went through the hiring process and got the job. “One of the advantages (I had) was I had been doing the job for just about a year before the accident. So I had a step up above the rest of the crowd.”

As the supervisor of plant operations and maintenance, Hager has six employees working for him, and together they cover a lot of ground. An electrician, two engineers and three maintenance mechanics work here at the main campus, and also at the Maywood Park Campus, as well as the Bruning Center for Allied Health Education buildings.

Asked if he is glad to be back to work, Hager said, “Oh, yeah, it’s like a holiday coming back to work after the stuff I’ve been through.

“I guess the thing you strive for is getting your old life back after an incident like this. You don’t think anything’s right until you can say, ‘I’ve gotten my life back.’