Your prayers and encouragement are what they most need, but if you also feel led to contribute to their expenses, you can do so here. Funds donated through the GoFundMe will be used for daily expenses that were incurred while out of state, (Darlena has also had to take FMLA to help care for Landon as he begins his journey towards recovery) i.e ongoing income loss, modifications needed at home to accommodate a wheelchair, medical equipment, upcoming in-home care nurses, commuting to outpatient physical therapy, and other unknown expenses.

Recounting his wife Darlena's story of how the accident unfolded: On October 17th, I received a call from an unknown number. I let it go to voicemail, anticipating it to be a spam or robocall. It immediately called back; this only meant one thing… Landon needed help, and he couldn’t call from his own phone. My heart sank to a place I’ve never felt before…

”Babe, I crashed bad. I’m going to be ok, but it’s bad”…..

He was 7 hours away from home, and it was heart-wrenching… my world turned upside down, and I fought back the temptation to freeze or panic…

Landon had left the previous afternoon to join a few buddies in Arkansas and fly in the beautiful Ozarks. It was supposed to be a relaxing guys' weekend. Friday morning, he had a great flight! As breakfast time approached, Landon decided to take in a few more minutes of flying. He scouted out the area he wanted to fly to, vigilantly watching for any obstacles in his path. As he flew into a clearing, power lines that had been completely camouflaged appeared, and he had a half second to respond. He pulled the right brake to attempt to steer away, but there was no time; the wing went over the power lines while he and the motor swung under… his wing completely deflated, he was unable to recover, and fell approximately 20 feet to the ground. He landed feet first, his body taking the brunt of the impact.

Landon never lost consciousness however, he couldn't reach his phone in his right harness pocket because the weight of his gear was holding him down. He had the foresight to wiggle his toes and feet, so he knew he wasn’t completely paralyzed. But he couldn’t move his legs due to the injuries and pain, so he laid still, trying not to cause any further damage. He laid on the dried, rocky pond bed, trapped under the weight of his mangled paramotor for 45 minutes before someone happened to fly over and see his red wing sprawled out among the weeds. The pilot flew closer and dropped to idle so he could yell down to Landon; Landon raised his left hand to show he was alive but needed help!

The pilot immediately flew back to the group to get help and, within minutes, several pilots arrived and ensured Landon that EMS was on the way. Since Landon was conscious and alert, he was able to confirm some details to the 911 dispatcher. Once the ambulance arrived, they were able to secure Landon to the backboard and place him on the back of another pilot's side-by-side.

The side-by-side inched out of the soft terrain up to the ambulance; once there, it was determined that he needed to be airlifted to a trauma center due to his injuries. So a helicopter was also called and arrived within minutes.

Once Landon was evaluated by the ER trauma team and MRIs were completed, the injuries included an ‘open book’ pelvic break (completely broken in half), right femur completely broken, a burst fracture to the L5 vertebra along with multiple fractures to other vertebrae, and 5 broken ribs. The damage was extensive, and it is a miracle he didn’t bleed out internally!!!

It took four surgeries over the next five days to repair all the brokenness with rods, plates, and screws! External fixation on Friday night to align and stabilize the pelvis and femur (this included traction on both legs); femur repair on Sunday; pelvic repair on Monday; and L5 decompression repair on Tuesday. Once all surgeries were complete and he was stable, he was moved from the ICU to the Ortho Trauma wing. There, we worked to continue pain management and slowly begin the long road to recovery with rehabilitation. Landon is to be zero weight bearing on both legs for 6-8 weeks, so while in the Ortho Trauma wing, he began working with physical and occupational therapists to start rebuilding muscle and core strength. After a week of rehabilitation in the hospital in Springfield, he was transferred by ambulance to a rehabilitation hospital in Wichita, KS.

He is now undergoing intense physical and occupational therapies to learn how to transfer himself without putting any weight on his legs and feet. He will remain at the facility for 9 more days, and then will be released to finish recovery at home. We have been told to expect that he will be wheelchair-bound for 6-8 weeks.