Boeing worker crushed by 787 returns home

SEATTLE — Josh Divers lost both his legs below the knee when he was run over by a Boeing 787 at Paine Field in Everett nearly two months ago.

On Wednesday, he finally headed home to his father’s house for the first time since the accident.

The Boeing worker said he wants to get back to work at the company. He’s been limited to hospital rooms and hallways, and he’s been through eight surgeries.

But still, he’s smiling.

“Certain people’s bodies shut down during that time of shock,” he said. “Luckily mine didn’t, otherwise I probably would have died.”

Divers took off his surgical socks to show what doctors are doing to prepare him for life as a double-amputee.

“I need to get up and walking and doing things again,” he said.

Skin grafts usually used on burn patients are protecting muscle and bone, but his knees are what surgeons fought to save.

“Even with the best prosthetics, you can’t do this (stand up),” said Dr. Douglas Smith with Harborview Medical Center. “The prosthetic has a knee that is hinged, but won’t give you power.”

Divers was on a crew that was moving a 787 in February, when tires under the right wing caught his legs and crushed them.

Divers said he doesn’t remember what happened; he just remembers the pain.

“I remember breaking my femur while I was trapped,” he said. “That didn’t hurt at all because of how much pain was in my feet.”

His father, Del Divers, a Lake Stevens firefighter, heard the massive emergency response and feared the worst.

“He doesn’t have his legs, and he has a different way he has to go about life, but life is still there,” Del said.

It’s a life Divers hope will include work.

“I don’t know how much I can, but I’ll want to,” he said.

After a news conference at the hospital Wednesday, Del said the family isn’t planning a lawsuit against Boeing, in response to a question about whether they believed the company to be responsible for Divers’ injuries.

KIRO