The Russ Youngstrom Story

Russ grew up, by his own admission, a bit of a risk-taker.

“I was always the first one to see how far up I could climb a tree, try the new neighborhood bicycle jump, or dive off a cliff into a river.”

He met his wife Laurel while working at the Space Needle in Seattle. They shared a love of adventure, the outdoors, hiking and riding Russ’ motorcycle. In 1991, they were married in a hot air balloon.

In November of 1995, Russ was working in Everett, Washington as part of a power washing crew. He remembers the alarm went off at 5:30 that morning. 

“I woke up, said ‘Goodbye’ to Laurel, opened up our son’s room and checked in on our two year old — he was sound asleep.”

“The weather was bad, and I was the first one there. We got our rigging all set up and went to the supervisors and they checked all our safety lines and gave us the OK to start power washing.”

Toward the end of the day, Russ wanted to get the job done so he suggested to his coworker they maneuver their scaffolding to a position on the inside of a handrail at about 30 feet. 

“I was tied off at the time. I unhooked my lanyard, hooked it back myself, and my coworker put his hands up and said, ‘No.’ I climbed up on the handrail and then something odd happened. I was thrown back about 10 feet and down 30 feet.”

“The hard hat came off, safety glasses came off, and at that point I was completely lost, I didn’t know which way was up. And I landed on the back of my head.”

“I tried to take a little breath and I couldn’t breathe. And then the pain went away, and it was warm and peaceful. I don’t know what you call that transition, but I was OK with it.”

“I felt somebody touch me and a tiny breath finally came. It was my coworker who had run down the three flights of stairs and then he ran and got help.”

Laurel was working at a nursing home when she got “the call” at about 5 p.m. “It was Friday night, and my supervisor came to me and said, ‘You have a phone call.’ Nobody wants to get that phone. All they could tell me was that my husband had been in a serious accident, and I had to get to the hospital right away so between my tears and the rain on the windshield I just kept thinking what would I tell our son? His daddy’s not coming home.” 

Russ survived. He came home after three months in the hospital with a severed his spinal cord and would be a complete and permanent paraplegic.

Russ and Laurel have now dedicated their lives to sharing their tragic experience as keynote speakers. 

Laurel said, “You don’t understand how many people are affected and how deeply they’re affected when you have an accident. Being unsafe is just selfish, and it’s not worth it.”

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According to Alberta Occupational Health and Safety approximately one in seven workplace fatalities in Alberta are the result of falls. Sometimes people are only a couple metres off the ground on a small ladder.

Doug Downs