WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A homeless man who fell asleep in a trash bin and was dumped into the back of a West Palm Beach garbage truck is recovering after suffering from broken legs and ribs.

"Spiritually, I'm happy, but physically, I'm not. I'm in bad pain. I hurt a lot," Robert Baswell said.

Baswell said he screamed each time a load of trash was crushed against his body and felt sure he would be killed after being dumped into the truck around 5 a.m. on May 7.

He said he was crushed against hamburger leftovers, dead rats and other refuse at least seven times. He tried to cushion one blow from the truck's compressor with a dead opossum, but it splattered against him.

Baswell's injuries include a broken pelvis, five broken ribs, torn ligaments in his shoulders and his left leg broken in six different places.

The trash collector found Baswell in the truck after noticing garbage was falling out of the vehicle while driving down the road. A total of 40 men, including local firefighters, spent four and a half hours pulling pieces of trash out by hand to free him.

Baswell said he had bedded down in a brush-filled trash bin the night before to get out of the rain. Baswell has hired a local attorney's office to represent him in court.