It was the last one. The twelfth tree of the 12 Tim Scherber had to remove on his Palmer Township property this spring due to oak wilt. Over the years he’d cut down approximately 40 others because of the same problem. 

 

Scherber tied ladders to the tree, then climbed up and started topping it. It’s the last thing he remembers until 43 days later, when he woke up at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale.

 

That morning, June 17, Scherber and his wife, Pam, had coffee and chatted about their plans for the day. Scherber was going to stain the deck. Pam was off to her job at Vogel Display Corp. in Becker. 

 

With his six-year-old granddaughter, Dakota, watching, Scherber began sawing a tree limb. Mallory, Dakota’s mom, was in the house preparing to leave. Suddenly he slipped and tried hugging the tree before falling into the tree next to it. He then fell straight down 30 feet, ending up on his back.

 

Dakota ran into the house to get her mom. Scherber was trying to roll to his side saying, “I can’t breathe, get Pam, help me.”

 

An employee from a cable company working next door helped Mallory hold Scherber still until emergency help arrived.

 

Due to the severity of his injuries, he was air lifted to North Memorial, where it was determined he had broken two vertebra in his neck and shattered five in his back. He’d broken all 12 ribs on his left side and his left lung had collapsed. He was put into a medically-induced coma, Doctors weren’t sure if he was going to make it.

 

“I don’t know if I can ever put into words what I was feeling,” said Pam Scherber. “Fear. Panic. The unthinkable had happened.”

 

During the six weeks he spent at North Memorial, Scherber received five blood transfusions and had nine chest tubes inserted. He contracted pneumonia and had a stroke. His heart stopped twice, and his ribs were rebroken while being given CPR to restart it. Two temporary pacemakers were put in before he received a permanent one July 14. 

 

On July 8 his breathing tube was replaced by a tracheotomy. A feeding tube was inserted July 14.

 

“Everything is just kind of a blur,” said Pam Scherber. “I spent weeks laying in bed with my cell phone on one side and the house phone on the other, scared to death.”

 

Getting up every morning at 4 a.m. to drive to the cities, she spent 12 to 13 hours every day with her husband.

 

“I’d pace back and forth and stare at the monitors,” she said. “Something is always beeping and you don’t know what it means.”

 

Scherber’s last surgery was a thoracotomy to reinflate his collapsed lung. Scheduled to take four hours, it instead took seven, as the surgeons had to first repair numerous holes and tears in it.

 

Scherber was brought out of his medically induced coma, and on July 29 he was transferred to Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul for ventilator weaning.

 

Three weeks later he began having trouble breathing and was taken back to North Memorial where he spent another eight days in ICU. This time he had pneumonia, a urinary tract infection, and a blood clot in his lung. 

 

Scherber was transferred to the rehabilitation unit at St. Cloud Hospital the second week of August, where he is currently receiving acute rehab.

 

“They’re amazing,” Pam Scherber said of the staff there. “They’re teaching him so much and are incredibly kind and caring.”

 

Scherber is expected to be released Oct. 10, after which sub-acute rehab may be necessary. Therapy will be needed for another one to three years.

 

“He’s a very strong, determined man,” said Pam Scherber. “He’s a fighter.”

 

“My biggest worry right now is my family having to take care of me,” said Scherber from his hospital bed. “My worst moment is putting my family through all of this.”

 

He’s regaining the use of his arms but isn’t expected to ever be able to walk again. 

 

“Being alive overrules all that,” Scherber said. “I’m elated to see my grandchildren grow up, to see my wife whose been by my side the whole time.” 

 

He’s working hard to become self sufficient, spending hours each day working with a physical therapist, a speech therapist and an occupational therapist. The family calls it “the new normal.”

 

“You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to just brush your teeth,” he said. “To get dressed, to put your pants on.”

 

“Thank God for family and friends,” said Pam Scherber. “They’ve been there for us physically and emotionally. We’ll never be able to repay them.”

 

The community has also reached out, and her employer has given her a leave of absence to be with her husband.

 

“It was so stupid not to be wearing a safety harness,” said Scherber. “It could have saved me from all of this.”

 

A benefit is being held Sept. 11 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Goenner Park in Clear Lake to help the Scherber family with expenses. 

 

Along with medical bills, their house needs to be remodeled to accommodate Scherber once he returns home. At the time of the accident he had left his job of 19 years due to back issues and was looking for a new position.

 

“I still have my moments when it just overcomes me,” said Pam Scherber. “And we’ve had our moments together. It’s been crazy but he’s alive and that’s all that matters.”