On a cold day in March, Lance Orr sits in a trailer on a construction site in downtown Arnprior. He oversees dozens of workers toiling to pour immense amounts of concrete into an enormous hole that has been blasted out of the rocky ground just across the street. Two apartment complexes that his company, Orr Developments, has erected loom over the site, which sits on the shore of the Madawaska River.

Originally from Shawville, Lance grew up working for his father’s construction company, piloting big trucks and heavy machinery from an early age. 

After graduating from Pontiac High School, he went to study civil engineering technology at Algonquin College and graduated in 2011. He said that instead of continuing with his father’s company he decided to chart his own path and went to work in construction in Ottawa. Working his way up the ladder, he helped manage several big projects for major developers in the city, including Ron Eastern Construction Ltd. and Minto. 

He exited the corporate world to form Orr Developments with his father Tom, and together with some partners, they broke ground on Sawmill Flats, as the Arnprior project is known, in 2020. Work on the third apartment building in the complex kicked off late last year. 

It would be easy to mistake Lance, 35, for any other young lad on site with a high-vis jacket and hard hat, though he moves and speaks with an authority in line with his role of supervisor and project manager. If you aren’t looking carefully, you might not even notice that he’s missing his left arm. 

Though the limb was only just amputated in February, it closed out a harrowing journey that Lance has endured over the past two years. On Feb. 17, 2024, he was in a horrific snowmobile accident outside Renfrew that claimed the life of his partner, Jennifer Blunden, and left him with serious injuries. 

Lance’s father Tom was able to get to the scene as they were loading Lance up to be transported to the hospital. 

“I was at work when I got the call from the police, but I wasn’t too sure what was going on,” he recalled. “It was one of the police officers that I knew. He told me at the time it wasn’t very good. We kind of went into it expecting the worst, you know.”

Lance said that he remembers his dad’s expression and the realization of what had happened hitting him in that moment. 

“By that look in my dad’s eyes at the time, I knew what had happened and the extent of the accident,” he said.

The accident pulled his left arm with incredible force, leaving him with what’s known as a brachial plexus injury (BPI).

“A BPI is nerve damage, long story short, where the connection from the brain to the arm is disconnected at the spinal cord,” Lance explained. “So my arm had been pulled in the accident, and what it did is pull the nerve right out of the spinal cord. No connection whatsoever, so I had a dead arm. For two years I carried this arm around.”

Just nine days after the accident Lance said that he checked himself out of the hospital, against the doctor’s advice, in order to attend Jennifer’s funeral.

“He wasn’t supposed to be out, but he got out,” Tom recalled. “He was bound and determined to go to the funeral so he went to the funeral.”

Lance said after some convincing from his doctors, he agreed to try and rehabilitate the arm by transplanting nerves from his legs, a painful and ultimately fruitless series of procedures. 

“I was a little bit of a surgical guinea pig,” he said. “At the time I was okay with the amputation but they really talked me towards this for future medicine as well.” 

After about a year and a half, the toll of carrying the dead arm was wearing on him and he said he had enough. He experienced severe nerve pain, which he described as like an electric shock that could strike at any time.

“When you sit down you have to make sure [the arm] doesn’t go behind you and you snap it when you get up out of the couch,” he explained. “I wasn’t wearing a sling, I wasn’t putting this thing on display so I would steady tuck my hand in my pocket. Every time I go to do something, when I get in a car I have to wrap around the seatbelt, put it into the door. Everything I did I had to carry this arm around, it was horrible.”

Less than a week before the second anniversary of the accident, on Feb. 12, Lance had his arm amputated just below the shoulder. He said that he was out of the hospital the same day, and went back to work the next morning. 

“Nobody could believe I was here [ . . . ] That week I was climbing on ladders, up on forms bouncing around, to the point where I almost impressed myself,” he said. “[I] actually exceeded what I even expected I could do in this situation.”

On top of the physical damage, and difficulties throughout rehabilitation, Lance said that his mental struggle over the last two years has also been incredibly gruelling. 

“I did go into a very deep dark place for some time,” he said, staring out the window of the trailer at the apartments across the street. “I remember looking at the top of them buildings and staring at them. In fact I had gone up to one of them, and decided that that wasn’t the right call for me at that time, and I’m glad I walked away from that.”

“Ever since my surgery I’ve just gone the other way,” he continued. “Every day is a gift, every day is a gift. I’m grateful every day to be here. I don’t like what happened, I can’t change what happened, but I can certainly change how I move forward and I decided to move forward in a very positive way.”

Lance’s sister Kim agreed. 

“The day of that surgery definitely turned those last two years around,” she said. 

In addition to support from friends and family throughout the ordeal, which Lance said has been amazing, he’s found some comfort and purpose in sharing his story on social media. He said he hoped to inspire people who might be going through a traumatic injury or a situation similar to his. He was blown away by the response he received, with one of his videos on TikTok garnering more than 350,000 views.

“The amount of people that have reached out to me from that was way more than I ever expected,” he said. 

Tom said that the positive feedback on social media has had an impact on his son. 

“You’ve watched the videos. That’s the person we knew two and a half years ago,” Tom said. 

“For two years it was pretty gloomy, you know, which everyone can understand. [ . . . ] He did have some people come from all over to support him, people call him that he never knew. They offered a lot of support which I think he realized would help, that’s why he’s looking to pay it forward.”

Lance said that his journey over the past few years hasn’t been easy, but he’s come away with a new appreciation for the human condition. 

“It’s put a lot of perspective in my life,” he said. “Life is a gift, it can be taken away at any moment. Don’t take it for granted and enjoy it while you’re here.”

If you or someone you know is struggling, dialling 8-1-1 option 2 in Quebec will connect you with a qualified social worker to speak with who can direct you to resources in your area. For those in crisis, Quebec’s suicide hotline, 1 -866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553), is available 24/7.