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'I thought, 'I'm done': Sask. father of two recovers from workplace accident

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SASKATOON -

A freak accident on a job site has a North Battleford family trying to pick up the pieces.

Manjinder Singh is a husband and father of two and on Aug. 23, his world changed.

“I heard screaming, yelling and I was screaming and crying,” Singh recalls of the rainy day where his crew was building a horse arena near Cochin Lake.

He was pinned in the mud and didn’t know if he was going to make it.

Between 10 to 30 trusses, each weighing 600 pounds, had fallen on him, he told CTV News.

Crews worked for an hour and a half to try and free him.

The pain was unbearable, Singh recounts, as he was going in and out of consciousness.

“I thought, ‘I’m done, I’m dead.’ First, I thought I should just stop breathing. Then I think about my family and say, no I have to be strong and stay awake.”

His wife Amanda was at home with their two kids, three and 11, when she got the call from his boss.

“He’s been hurt, and you need to get there right away,” she remembers.

She raced to the hospital to see her husband.

“They told me what had happened and that he had a broken back. The vertebra burst into little pieces and a piece hit his spinal cord,” she says.

They don’t know if he’ll ever walk again.

The family just bought a home. The plan was for Singh to do the renovation work. Now he works to rehabilitate his body.

Recently, they had a glimmer of hope – he can wiggle a toe.

With the family’s only income now eliminated and travel costs for daily trips to Saskatoon mounting, family members have set up a Go Fund Me page to help.

With no word on how long Singh will be in hospital, the family waits.

Their 11-year-old is old enough to realize the severity of the situation but the younger one is still trying to process it.

“My son keeps saying, daddy’s ok, daddy’s ok, right?”

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