Seeley Lake Mt man needs help after being crushed by a tree.

My brother Chris has spent most of his life in the Seeley-Swan valley located northeast of Missoula Montana. Through his time there he has devoted his life to helping those with anything they need from plowing, auto repair to any type of construction. This does not include the countless people he helped with shelter and work that were down on their luck. It is now his time where he is in need of help since he did not have adequate heath insurance and sustained serious life threating injuries that will take years to recover from.

Chris lives in the small mountain community of Seeley Lake Montana where there was a sudden windstorm. Familiar with construction, he was asked to help secure a property. He and one of his kids walked out the front door to help his community. His boy walked out a few seconds ahead of him and heard a cracking noise, he turned around and saw my brother running away from a tree that was falling towards him and the house. The tree hit the edge of the house which threw the tree into a different path. A path that was exactly where my brother ran to! This tree weighing thousands of pounds, landed directly on him. His kid witnessed him engulfed by this tree and ran to his rescue thinking there's no way he survived. His boy managed to pull him from under the tree and call 911. It was too windy for life-flight so he was rushed by ambulance 90 miles to the nearest trauma facility in Missoula that could treat him.

His surgical team has identified the following injuries:

Fractured hip in multiple locations with broken socket.

Back is broken at T12 with bone fragments threatening his spinal cord.

Compound fractures to the right leg below the knee and broken femur.

Fractures on the face from each eye socket down to the jaw.

6 broken ribs on the left side, #3-#8.

A broken scapula on the left side.

Updates:

One the first few days the concern was to stabilize him, identify the damage. During this time he underwent procedures to work on his face and align his hip to reduce pain until reconstructive surgery.

Today he just survived the most critical surgery, a spine surgery to remove all the bone fragments from a spinal burst fracture where they fused his back with hardware. He has extreme pain and swelling but he can move his toes which is the best news he has had since this accident.

Tomorrow, his surgical team are planning for a hip surgery to replace his fractured socket and broken hip bone.

This is now a time that Chris and his family need all the support they can as his medical costs may reach hundreds of thousands. We the family are helping all we can but if anyone can help, Chris and his family could sure use any assistance you can provide!

Thank you so very much!

The Soelter Family