As a production foreman, husband, and father of three, Patrick Lindquist stays busy. He monitors natural gas wells and equipment at work and coaches his children’s youth baseball teams.
But a work accident that broke his back in August 2025 put all of that activity in jeopardy. After the accident, Patrick couldn’t move anything below his waist.
Emergency surgery at UPMC Williamsport helped stabilize Patrick’s spine. He then spent months in inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation to regain his lower-body strength and mobility.
Today, Patrick walks without help, and his mobility continues to improve.
A Scary Injury
Patrick, 34, of Liberty, Pa., was operating a piece of heavy equipment at work on Aug. 19, 2025, when the machine flipped.
“I was thrown around in the cab, and I broke my back,” he says. “My head went through the back window of the machine, and I was knocked unconscious.
“I woke up to my coworker just holding me on the ground. He had my shirt off and wrapped around my head because it was bleeding significantly.”
His friend told him what happened and that emergency responders were on the way. That’s when Patrick noticed he couldn’t move his legs.
“I was pretty scared, obviously,” Patrick says. “But I remember I was joking around with the paramedics and my coworkers while I was getting loaded up.
“It really wasn’t until I got to the hospital, when everything kind of got settled in, that I was looking for answers.”
At UPMC Williamsport, imaging showed a fracture in Patrick’s thoracic spine, the middle section of his backbone. He could feel touch on his legs but couldn’t move them.
“I was so confused,” he says. “I didn’t know if you could be paralyzed and still have feeling.”
Nancy Abu-Bonsrah, MD, neurosurgeon at UPMC Neurological Institute in Williamsport, performed emergency surgery on Patrick to fuse and stabilize his spine. He then moved to the intensive care unit.
Uncertain About His Future
Patrick woke up from his surgery with no pain in his back. But while he could feel his legs, he still couldn’t move them.
Melissa Michaluk, DO, medical director of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UPMC Williamsport, evaluated Patrick soon after surgery.
Patrick says he could feel touch on his legs, but less clearly than before the injury.
“They kept telling me I was in a state of paralysis,” he says. “I know that they don’t have a crystal ball and they can’t predict anything, but I just didn’t know how I was going to end up.”
Facing an uncertain recovery, Patrick leaned on his family for support.
“My wife was my rock through the whole thing,” he says. “She said, ‘We’ll take this day by day — there’s nothing to worry about. We’ll figure it out.’ She was very positive and uplifting through the whole thing.”
Beginning the Long Journey Back
After almost a week in intensive care, Patrick moved to the inpatient rehabilitation unit at UPMC Williamsport. There, he began occupational and physical therapy.
“They wanted me to be capable of getting around and being as independent as possible when I went home,” he says.
Patrick progressed quickly through occupational therapy. At first, Patrick’s team believed he would leave inpatient rehab in a wheelchair. They focused on tasks like moving from his bed to the wheelchair and operating the wheelchair.
But a major breakthrough came after his first week in rehab.
“I started gaining movement in my right leg,” he says. “It started out just being able to move my foot around. And then once I started getting that movement back, they changed my therapy program to build the strength and muscle memory to move my leg more normally.”
Patrick says it was “very emotional” when he started getting movement back in his right leg.
“It was just a very big step in the recovery process. Maybe there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and I just need to let the process work.”
While his right leg had movement, his left leg still had none. Patrick says he called his left leg “the problem child.”
Then, after about a month in rehab, his left leg started moving, too.
“I was actually in the shower, and all of a sudden, my big toe on my left leg, I could start wiggling it,” he says. “That was the only movement I had in my left leg when I first started. That was my breakthrough, my big toe wiggling.”
Regaining movement in his legs allowed Patrick to progress faster in therapy. He began working on standing up, building up his leg strength, and walking with mobility devices.
“We would do laps around the rehab floor,” Patrick says. “When I was able to walk the whole way around without getting fatigued, that was the big sign that I was definitely headed in the right direction.”
During rehab, Patrick grew close to other people receiving care and his care team.
“If I had any questions or even just had a bad day, I could talk to any of my nurses,” he says. “They would just reassure me. ‘That’s what you’re here for, is to work through this, and that’s what we’re here for — to help you through this and get you better.’”
Patrick left inpatient rehab in early October 2025. By then, he could walk using a walker.
From Inpatient to Outpatient
After returning home, Patrick began outpatient physical therapy at the UPMC Outpatient Center in Mansfield, Pa. He spoke about this change with Dr. Michaluk, who recommended trying aquatic therapy using the facility’s pool.
Patrick went to therapy three times a week. He says they got him into the pool for aquatic therapy “from day one,” and it made a huge impact.
“I really think the water therapy was key in my recovery,” he says.
He continued to make progress. Eventually, he moved to walking with a cane. Then, he could walk without help.
By the spring of 2026, he was back to coaching his children’s baseball teams.
“I couldn’t be out there running the bases with them, but I was at least there to support them,” he says. “But by the end of the baseball season, I was throwing batting practice to the kids and working with pitchers. It’s just crazy, the way I’ve been progressing.”
Patrick says he had a slight setback in the early summer, which concerned him. After talking with his therapy team and Dr. Michaluk, he increased the intensity of his therapy and began improving again.
During recovery, Patrick has learned to appreciate small signs that he's still healing. These include lifting his left leg higher or climbing stairs more easily.
Patrick still has goals for increasing his mobility. He’s still going to therapy three times a week. He and his team believe the improvement will continue.
“When I first got hurt and they said it could take up to a year or more to heal, I don’t think you process it until you start to do it,” he says. Now, more than a year after his injury, Patrick says, “Look how far I’ve come.”
