For Laine Schwehr, everything “continues to trend upward” in recovery and life

Laine Schwehr’s life changed in a matter of seconds last September.

He rolled his No. 56 Wissota Late Model hard while leading a heat race at the Jamestown Stampede.  The result of the crash was a broken neck and compressed spine.

And after he was airlifted to Fargo, as he was being examined for feeling in his arms and legs, a neurosurgeon offered a potential prognosis. He had no feeling below the chest as the doctor examined him.

“I said, ‘just don’t sugar coat it,’” Schwehr recalled. “He looked at me and said, ‘quadriplegic.’”

Quadriplegia – defined as paralysis of all four limbs – led Schwehr’s thoughts to wonder what his future would look like. Would he walk again? Would life be spent in a wheelchair? Would he need round-the-clock care?

“There were some pretty dark days those first few days,” said Schwehr.  “I didn’t know what to expect. I went back to accepting that I’m going to need someone to take care of me the rest of my life.”

But Schwehr’s story wasn’t over. Far from it. Fast forward seven months from that crash, and life looks much different for the 29-year-old from Sanborn, N.D. In his words: “I’m back to work, back to life, back to working on race cars.”

It’s a story of perseverance and determination.

And yes, that’s what Schwehr said – working on a race car.  Something that didn’t seem remotely possible months ago was him getting back behind the wheel. But throughout it all, he had a goal in the back of his mind. Like so many in racing, the sport is his blood.

“I said right away, if I could walk again, I’d race again,” Schwehr said.

He’s not only walking now – he’s been doing so without a cane for a month.  While his right hand is a little behind in its recovery, he has recovered a full range of motion in his fingers.  He’s back at his job as a truck driver on a regular basis and is down to two physical therapy appointments per week.

“It’s been good,” Schwehr said. “Everything has been trending upward.”

“His drive, vision, determination, stubbornness, and fear of being defeated is absolutely unmatched,” said Greg Friestad, a good friend of Schwehr’s and fellow late model driver who is among many who’ve supported Schwehr after the accident. “If nobody believed in him before, I hope they now at least know who he is and respect him as a person and maybe someday they’d be lucky enough to know him as a friend.”

Schwehr’s story grabbed the attention of race drivers and thousands of fans from across the region.

Jamestown had endured a wet, cool week prior to the Stampede, which led to a very tacky racetrack with some character. Schwehr was running well, out front, when he hooked a rut in turn four and it sent his machine rolling.

“It was a bad luck sort of thing,” Schwehr said. “I closed my eyes and hung onto belts. I knew it was going for a ride.”

Schwehr landed on his roof. He said he was conscious the whole time and initially, didn’t know the severity of the injury.  “I wasn’t in any pain,” he said.

Emergency personnel took care in flipping the car over, and once on its wheels, Schwehr had a dose of how things were – he couldn’t feel his legs.

“That’s when I knew something was wrong. It was a little scary for a bit,” Schwehr said.

He was taken by ambulance to the Jamestown hospital and soon was airlifted to Fargo.  After CT scans and an MRI, doctors were testing his body for feeling. Schwehr said he could feel nothing from three inches below his neck.

The next morning, he had surgery on his neck, and there was a dose of good news. The injury wasn’t as severe as initially feared by doctors, and that led to optimism for a recovery. 

Originally the surgery was projected to last as long as seven hours; but since the injury wasn’t as bad as thought, the surgery to fuse his spine lasted about four hours.

He didn’t regain much feeling initially but about a week into physical therapy, was able to stand with assistance. By the end of the second week, he was able to wiggle his toes.

“A lot of it is a blur to me how fast everything happened,” Schwehr said.

Something else was happening – a response from the racing community on social media. There were hundreds of Facebook posts and well-wishes from his fellow drivers and fans. He was read several of those messages and soon saw them first hand when he was able to access his phone with the help of a tripod. To put into some perspective – the first video he posted talking about the crash and injury had more than 4,800 Facebook likes.

“When I was able to see it all –I was blown away by it,” Schwehr said. “Locally the racing community is very good. If there is someone involved in (a serious crash), everybody rallies behind. The amount of outreach and well wishes, it just blew me away.”

There was also a benefit in Valley City in early January that was well attended. The support for Schwehr has come from many.

After the initial recovery time in Fargo, Schwehr was flown to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Neb., where the physical therapy reached a new level of intensity.

Schwehr said he arrived on a Monday, was evaluated on Tuesday; by that Thursday, he was taking his first steps.   The therapy was by no means easy – but there was progress being made.

“I never really had any pain; there was a lot of physical exhaustion,” Schwehr said. “It was tough for sure. The first few weeks, we’d see a lot of progress really fast.”

For Schwehr, the therapy meant a lot of re-learning things he had been doing all his life. Like walking. Feeding himself. Brushing his teeth.

“The way I described it, it’s like being a toddler and learning everything,” Schwehr said. “Except you were aware you were able to do it (before), and now you’re re-learning it.”

46 days after the crash, he left the Madonna hospital having made a lot of progress. So much, in fact, that he decided not to use a walker on his way out of the hospital to his car.

He continued with physical therapy once he was home; his goal was to get back behind the wheel of his truck before Christmas. He accomplished that.

“I wanted to see if I could do it,” Schwehr said. “I drove it for 20 miles.”

He was slowly easing back into work and has been able to work on a more regular basis for the last month.  “Overall I’m pretty good. My neck has been sore from doing more,” Schwehr said.

While he has made remarkable strides since the crash and injury, he’s also aware the effects of the injury may not fully go away.

“I don’t know if things will ever be 100 percent as they were before,” Schwehr said. “There will always be some sort of lingering effect. It’s the unknown. What do you get back and what you don’t, and to what extent.”

The recovery and progress led to the big question a racer like Schwehr would have – and that is returning to get behind the wheel. Prior to the crash last year, he and his crew had been preparing a second car to race for 2026. The car was almost done and ready to hit the track. The engine for the car has been refreshed, and a seat is being put together for the car in North Carolina.

He won’t be getting behind the wheel to prove anything to anybody else. He wants to do it for himself.

“I think the coals are red hot and the fire is burning more so than ever than before to get back behind the wheel for nothing more than simply proving to himself that he can do it again,” Friestad said. “Laine’s the kind of guy, if you tell him he can’t do something or that he shouldn’t, he’ll call you that night with a giggle telling you that he did it.”

“It’s a 99 percent chance you’ll see me race again this year,” Schwehr said. “Everything is headed in that direction. The NLRA opener is May 21; I’m going to try my hardest to be there.”