CAMDEN — The man who fell approximately 20 feet from the scaffolding at the Camden-Rockport Middle School work site remains in the hospital with three broken ribs and one broken vertebrae. He is undergoing surgery today at a Portland hospital, according to Peter Reynolds, who is project manager for Ledgewood Construction, the company hired to build the new school.

The man is reported to be able to move his legs.

The fall occurred Dec. 6, just before 11 a.m., and the 39-year-old male was conscious and breathing, after landing on the ground.  

He was a subcontractor with a concrete company hired to build the foundation walls of the new school’s gymnasium. The man apparently was not in a harness when he fell backward through an opening in the scaffolding for a ladder.

Students in one of the classroom’s reportedly saw him fall, and one ran to notify a teacher who has EMS training.

Contractors, a Camden police officer and five Camden firefighters helped to carry the man from the job site to a North East Mobile Health Services ambulance.

The worker was transported to Pen Bay Medical Center, and then to Portland, where he remains.