Lars Schou's Medical Fund: Help rebuild LEGS

Friends, Family, and Neighbors,

Thank you for checking in on this site and Lars! This is Annika, Lars' sister, reaching out for help for my brother. If you want to hear about how he was injured and the rescue that saved his life, that story is below. Most importantly Lars is alive. Lars is talking, awake, not paralyzed and still his smiling optimistic self. The biggest take away is this: Lars severely hurt both of his legs rock climbing on Sunday, 7/25. He required search and rescue evacuation, along with emergency surgery at St. John's in Jackson where he remains in-patient getting IV antibiotics, pain management and additional surgeries. He has many more injuries throughout his legs and is going to require many more surgeries over the coming weeks. While he is optimistic and grateful to be alive, there are still many hurdles for him to (not literally), jump over.

Lars and his girlfriend, Megan, have lived in San Antonio for the past two years where she is completing the final months of her PA program (GO Megan!). At the beginning of July, Lars moved back to Jackson to help our dad build a house down in Alpine. With these complex injuries and extended recovery time, Lars will not be able to work any time soon. Any money given to this fund will pay for medical expenses (Lars has insurance through Cobra), rent, living expenses and the ability for Megan to fly back to Jackson to visit Lars over his recovery and future surgeries.

Born and raised in Jackson Hole, we know that Lars is a loved and cherished member of many different communities. I know that we can rally around him and show how much we love him by hopefully eliminating some of the financial stressors that can accumulate when people are in need.

The injury/rescue story and injuries sustained are below:

On Sunday, 7/25, Lars and his dear friend, Sahir, were rock climbing up Garnet Canyon where Lars took a very scary fall. Lars and Sahir are experienced and passionate climbers - what happened was an unfortunate accident. Lars was lead climbing the third pitch and slipped while placing a piece of protection. He fell past the cam below him, the rock broke and the cam flew out, causing him to fall even further. He then pendulum swung 15-20 feet. During his fall, his legs hit the rock wall extremely hard, severely breaking both of his lower legs, feet, and right knee. The most obvious was the extreme compound fracture on his left ankle.

Of course, hanging from a rock wall approximately 250 feet in the air can seem scary to anyone, but to then suddenly realize that both of your legs are hurt, badly, would be terrifying. Sahir and Lars maintained their composure and Sahir was able to safely get to Lars in order to place a tourniquet to slow the bleeding. Thankfully, there was a couple just below Lars and Sahir that were able to briefly get enough cell service to call TCSAR. While hanging, clipped into the side of the rock wall, Lars and Sahir waited for help.

Thankfully, some of the finest rescuers were working search and rescue that day. They performed a quick maneuver to evacuate Lars. They performed a "short haul", meaning that since Lars was in such bad shape and in a compromised location, he was lifted off of the wall at the end of a 250 foot rope from the helicopter. Lars was then taken to Lupin Meadows where an ambulance was on standby to further stabilize his visual traumas, start giving him pain medication, and rush him to the ER.

That afternoon, approximately 5 hrs after he initially fell , Lars underwent his first surgery, cleaning and stabilizing his left ankle compound fracture. In the days that have followed, we have learned more about what injuries Lars has on his legs and what we need to expect moving forward.

1. Major compound fracture of his left ankle, surgically placed requiring external fixator - more surgery to come

2. Partially torn ACL and MCL, complete PCL and LCL tear in his right knee: requiring surgery

3. Posterolateral corner injury (caused by lateral instability from the tear of his PCL)

4. Tibial plateau fracture of his right knee that is "in pieces": requiring surgery

5. Talus and Calcaneus (heel) of his right foot are also injured: potential surgery needed in 2-3 wks