Injured UM teen worker comes home University officials to meet with state about violations

BANGOR – A Sullivan teen-ager injured last month in a fatal accident at a University of Maine facility in Franklin has been brought back to Maine from Boston, according to officials.

George Schaefer, 16, had been kept on a ventilator for two weeks after suffering lung damage, according to a relative.

The youth was discharged Wednesday in good condition from Children’s Hospital in Boston, a hospital spokeswoman said Thursday.

The teen-ager has been transferred to another medical facility in Maine, where he will undergo rehabilitation for his injuries, she said.

A spokeswoman for Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor said Thursday that, at the request of the boy’s family, the hospital was not releasing any information about Schaefer.

The university has since been fined $111,000 for workplace safety violations found at the Franklin facility during a subsequent investigation by the Maine Department of Labor.

University representatives were meeting Thursday afternoon with state officials to discuss the violations and resulting fine, according to UM spokesman Joe Carr.

The university has until Monday to correct the violations.

Schaefer and William O’Coin, 43, of Ellsworth, both University of Maine employees, were cleaning a water tank on July 29 at the university’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin when Schaefer was overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes generated by sludge and stagnant water in the tank, according to officials. O’Coin climbed into the tank to help Schaefer and succumbed to the gas.

O’Coin died as a result of the accident. He has been credited with helping to keep Schaefer alive before firefighters from surrounding towns were called and arrived at the scene.

Soon after the accident, Schaefer was transported to the Boston hospital, where he was in serious condition for more than two weeks.

The boy’s grandmother, Dorothy Sparks of Quincy, Mass., said during a phone interview Thursday that Schaefer primarily sustained injuries to his lungs in the accident.

His mother, Bonnie Sparks, who works for the Ellsworth Center of the University of Maine System, stayed at the Boston hospital and at a neighboring hotel while Schaefer was kept in the hospital’s intensive care unit, his grandmother said.

The youth was taken off the ventilator earlier this week, Dorothy Sparks said, enabling her grandson to return to Maine.

Dorothy Sparks said her grandson has been trying to keep himself in good spirits while he has been in the hospital. She said Schaefer had been working at the Franklin facility for only a few weeks when the accident occurred.

“He’s a very positive young man,” Dorothy Sparks said. “It’s been very difficult for him because he’s a caring individual.”

Schaefer is a junior at Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan and vice president of his class. He plays basketball and tennis and is on the cross-country team, the grandmother said.

Sparks said doctors have told the boy that it could take up to a year for him to recover from his injuries.

“He’s concentrating on getting better,” Sparks said. “He wants his strength back because he’s a runner.”