'When I was down in the dark hole, I just started wiggling my toes'
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PORTLAND, Ore. - It's a nightmare for many people - falling down an elevator shaft - and now we're hearing from a local man who went through it.
The incident happened Oct. 1 in an industrial building at Southeast Water Avenue and Madison Street.
Sean Claughton fell from the first floor about 20 feet to the basement.
"I didn't know when it was going to end," he said. "I guess my mind slowed it down, like slow motion."
When he hit the basement floor, his wrist shattered, one of his feet broke in two places and his shoulder blade was injured. Then there was the injury to a disc in his back, which has since been replaced by rods. And he still needs more surgery.
"When I was down in the dark hole, I just started wiggling my toes a lot trying to make sure I could," he said. His muscles tensed in pain and each focused breath held him back from panic.
"I looked up to the top," he said. "I was just trying to picture myself climbing out of it, with my injuries. I was like 'how am I going to do this?' "
Someone in the building heard his calls for help, though, and called 9-1-1. Firefighters used ropes and pulleys to get Claughton out of the shaft and to the hospital.
Claughton said he had used the elevator a dozen times - lifting the elevator gate, setting up his photography equipment and leaving. But it was different this time.
"A second out of my life maybe made me not able to walk or ride my bike or skateboard," he said. "I do everything with my feet."
But Claughton does plan to use his feet again. He is ready for the months, perhaps years, it will take to recover.
"I feel like I'll try to get stronger than I was before I even fell," he said.
He's also grateful for the people in his life who are there for him.
"I appreciate every bit of everyone's love and it goes back to them a million times," he said.
Claughton has since been released from the hospital but he can't work and the medical bills are already piling up, so his friends and family have set up a donation page.
Can't pay his bills, where have I heard that one before. The story does not go into the details of how he fell into the shaft, Was he drunk, stoned, careless, being stupid ??????
 @onceagain OR .. was his equipment in the way and he didn't notice the elevator wasn't there.  We're so used to having elevator doors that don't open if the elevator isn't there, that I think it would be not that difficult to imagine lifting a gate and not noticing the floor wasn't there.
I don't know about anyone else but every time I get on an elevator I actually make sure it's there first before I go to walk in.....like everybody else I seem to be missing something.
When I first read the headline I thought "Where's Hobbit when you need one?" Then I read it and I want to know stuff too...was this an abandoned building? Normally if the elevator is old enough to have a gate across it, it's a frieght elevator...so he couldn't tell there was nothing there??? I would hope he wasn't inside in the darkness! That would be just plain dumb. I could see this if there were elevator doors that opened automatically...it's just normal to just step inside. But where you have to physically move a gate...I'd like more info.
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I know this may not be popular to say, but how do you fall down a elevator shaft? Maybe I am just weird, but I watch where I walk and would notice if the elevator car was missing. Now I suppose it will be the building owners fault he was not watching where he was going. This is like the dumbass that sued because the coffee was hot.
 @iamtroglodite Yeah, I know what you mean .. I was a commercial carpenter for years and saw the aftermath as well as the injured .. The craziest one was when we had all of the locations for skylights on the roofs covered with a sheet of plywood on each hole.. Then a laborer is told to get the extra sheets of plywood down from the roof , so the guy picks up the sheet and proceeds directly with a step right in to the hole ( of the roof, of the warehouse, that is 30ft plus , off of the ground .). If he is lucky , he has held on to the plywood for dear life and a pipefitter will rescue him with their scissor lift before he looses his grip and falls the rest of the way down to the slab..
Me too is confused with little to go on! I have to ask, is not the building owner responsible or/ and the elevator maintenance people sharing any responsibility?
Seriously. More information please. What was he doing there? Something to do with photography? Is he uninsured? Is this a worker's comp injury? Apparently not. I wish him the best, sounds like a horrible fall.
KATU posted an article that's incomplete on details and actual reporting. Again. Color me surprised.
 @AmiM Any time you read a headline that's some lame-ass "quote" you can rest assured that the content will be just as lacking. But "down in the dark hole" makes people ask WTF? and that gets they to click on a story they'd otherwise pass over, and katu's advertisers pay them revenue, even though no real reporting has occurred. Bah!
I'm not entirely clear on what happened. Â How did he fall down the shaft? Â Was he trespassing? Â Details please...