TORONTO - A man from the Uzbek community has befriended the lone survivor of a dramatic Christmas Eve accident that killed four other workers.

Bakhtier Shakhnazarov has been visiting Dilshod Marupov in hospital since hearing of the 21-year-old's 13-storey plunge when the scaffolding he was on broke.

"He was very sorry that he was going to meet the new year alone without friends, in a hospital bed," said Shakhnazarov said Friday.

Shakhnazarov didn't know Marupov before the accident, but has reached out to help the young man who is from his country.

Four men, all migrant workers, died on Dec. 24 after the swing stage scaffold they were standing on snapped while they were making balcony repairs to an apartment building.

Marupov was the only survivor, suffering two fractured legs and other injuries. He is in the intensive care unit at Sunnybrook Hospital.

Shakhnazarov said doctors have been telling him that the young man will be moved out of the intensive care ward this month.

"(Thursday) I visited him and he was 100 per cent conscious. He was able to talk about everything, about the situation," said Shakhnazarov.

Marupov faces an operation and still has months of rehabilitation ahead, Shakhnazarov said.

Shakhnazarov is trying to raise money with local construction unions and companies to help Marupov pay for his rehabilitation, and also to provide money to bring Marupov's parents to Canada.

"His family still don't know about the accident," said Shakhnazarov, adding Marupov's parents are older and he's afraid they will worry.

"He's worried about his condition. He doesn't want to stay at hospital long," said Shakhnazarov, who says Marupov is eager to leave.

"He even asked me if I would talk to the doctor so he could leave the hospital, but I explained to him with his condition it's impossible."

There have been calls for an investigation into the accident.

On Tuesday, Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan called on Ontario's attorney general to investigate whether criminal negligence was involved.

But Ontario government officials said it is the police who should decide whether charges of criminal negligence should be laid in the deaths.

It was also revealed that eight orders, including two stop-work orders, were issued by Ontario's Ministry of Labour at the apartment building where the workers fell to their deaths.

One stop-work order handed to Metron Construction Inc. had been lifted by a ministry inspector one week before the men died, spokesman Matt Blajer said on Thursday.

He also said that none of the orders dealt with the swing stage that broke.