Luke's Life Saving Flight Back to Pittsburgh

Hi, my name is Casey Cline. My brother, Joe Sedar and good friend Jason Woods are fundraising for my brother, Luke Sedar. What you are about to read is lengthy, but so has Luke’s journey since his accident in October 2021. Please take the time to read.

After living in Montana for many years, Luke, a veteran and police officer for 18 years, grew a love and passion for the Rockies. He has made a few trips back to visit and get away since moving back to Pittsburgh, PA. In October 2021, Luke was on what we could call a dream vacation for Luke to Wyoming. This vacation was scheduled in 2018, and he saved little by little to make it happen.

While horseback riding the morning of October 10, he, his friend and his brother-in-law traveled down the mountainside on a narrow path when the path collapsed beneath the horses’ feet. Instead of running forward, the horse ran up the steep mountain, throwing Luke off his back, falling at least 20 feet to the bottom of the mountain near a creek bed. With Luke’s back to the mountain, he sat up and looked behind to see where the horse was. He saw the horse falling towards him, rotating end over end. The horse landed across Luke’s shoulders, driving him to the ground, and the horse landed, so the saddle horn was also into what would have been the ground, but instead was Luke. The horse stomped on Luke several times to get to his feet. Luke gasped and blew out all his air when he landed on him.

When the others reached Luke, he told them his foot was going to the right and my knee to the left; the upper leg area appeared swollen. Remaining calm, Luke said to call for help because he couldn’t get up to get back on the horse. Three guys showed up on horseback, and one guy showed up on a four-wheeler, and a truck waited at the top of the mountain. The guys picked Luke up and placed him on the steel cargo rack of the four-wheeler. The terrain was rough, but they made it to the truck and lifted Luke into it. They drove 45 minutes to a meeting place where an ambulance met them and went to the hospital. There, it was determined they could not treat Luke's severe injuries, and he needed advanced care. Luke was receiving bags and bags of blood due to the amount of internal bleeding, then life-flighted to Billings, Montana. After being evaluated at Billings, the doctors and surgeons determined the following injuries:

• Skull bleeding & concussion

• Six fractures on the spine

• Contusions of the lungs

• Broken & crushed pelvis (entire pieces of bone crushed and missing)

• Bone fragments in organs

• Severely broken sacrum in several locations (the bone that holds spine to the pelvis)

• Broken left femur (section crushed)

• Broken left femur ball that fits into the hip socket

• Eight broken ribs, five on right, three on left

• Torn ligaments, tendons, and muscles on the right side from waist down

Luke almost died twice (2 times the hospital paged the code team to his room in 5 days) from his organs shutting down due to the trauma. He was septic, had his lungs partially collapse from the fluid around his lungs/heart and developed a bad case of pneumonia, pain levels uncontrolled, in addition to all his other major trauma concerns.

It was determined Luke required additional treatment beyond the abilities of Billings, MT. The Billings, MT Trauma Center, said this was the most severe injury of this type they have ever seen. Luke was transferred very carefully to a private pay “flying ICU” Jet with an entire medical staff and life-flighted from Billings, MT to Pittsburgh, PA – UPMC – Level 1, Trauma Unit. Upon arrival at UPMC level 1 trauma Luke’s case was accepted by the best and highest-level surgeons at UPMC. Over the next few weeks, Luke became additionally stable and stronger.

On November 8th, 2021, Luke could go home and continue the care he needed with an RN making regular visits as well as physical therapy. Fast forward a few months to March 2022, with this positive and grateful attitude on life, one week after Luke first transitioned from the bed into his electric wheelchair using the slide board, he decides that he will learn to WALK again, no matter the pain. Luke’s wife, Joy, and primary caregiver immediately contacted the orthopedic surgeon to confirm this would even be a safe thing for Luke to attempt with all his trauma and his walking projection being 12-14 months from the date of injury. The orthopedic surgeon said, “I guess, structurally, he can start to stand if he can “tolerate” the massive amounts of pain it is going to cause his body.”

The very next day, Luke insisted Joy bring his very heavy electric wheelchair next to the hospital bed for stability. He said, “I’m going to toss my legs over and stand up on my own feet.” And Luke did just that; he used his arms to move his legs over the side rail of the hospital bed and proceeded to pull himself up into a standing position using the stability of the electric wheelchair. Through much pain and determination, Luke did this multiple times per day for two days.

On day three, the physical therapist came to the house for his normal hospital bed “leg mobility” visit and was VERY surprised to see Luke had the ability to stand. Luke proceeded to persuade the physical therapist that it would be a good idea to allow him to walk and not just stand. The therapist made a few quick calls to the orthopedic surgeon and said, “the doctor has given me the go-ahead to allow you to walk with my assistance if your body can tolerate the pain. But don’t try this without me here!” With the therapist’s assistance, it was not pretty and excruciating, but Luke drug his feet behind him as he pulled his legs forward one at a time. Within the next week, he was able to lift each foot off the ground enough to move it forward on his own.

Luke amazes and inspires us every day; 6-MONTHS AHEAD of his recovery schedule, Luke took his first assisted steps. The hardest part of Luke’s recovery is his mind wants to go faster than his body's healing will allow. The 12-14 months after Luke’s accident are very critical. One fall could leave him paralyzed and unable to use his legs.

Today, Luke has a metal rod in the left femur. He has two bolts going from his leg into his hip, holding his leg together. His pelvis has a chain going from one side to another with three plates. His rear back and sacrum has four bolts. Two bolts go from his spine to his hips, and two go from his hips to his spine, intersecting each other. Luke has a couple of bolts from in the rear of his hips because they cracked in the rear. The six fractures in the spine must heal themselves. He is still having back spasms that lock his entire body up. He has nerve pain in his right leg up the rear of his leg into his lower back and right butt cheek, the bone where all the metal in his body must grow around it. Luke was told it should take a year or longer to be safe enough to start living a semi-normal life. Luke still has quite a bit of healing. The doctors cannot tell Luke what pain levels will be for the rest of his life, and to be honest, all that know Luke will understand he never let pain stop him, and he won’t start now.

As one can imagine, the private flight back to Pittsburgh was; one necessary and two expensive. Any donation made to this GoFundMe will be going directly towards the cost of that flight saving Luke’s life. We will never know what kind of shape Luke would be in without Joy deciding to have Luke flown back to Pittsburgh.