July 8, 2019 – Dodge County, WI – On June 30, 2019, the Washington County Insider reported on an ATV accident that happened in the Town of Emmet, critically injuring 9-year-old Landon “LJ” Luedke of Rio, who is autistic.
According to the family, his mother, April Kaiser, says:
Landon [is] an amazing, loving, and very active, 9 year old boy with autism. Our 9-year-old baby boy Landon was involved in an ATV accident on June 29th in Watertown, Wisconsin with his uncle whom he loves dearly. Landon has suffered a very severe traumatic brain injury, and is currently in an induced coma. Landon is going to need a lot of long-term care and therapy that is currently unknown at this time. When Landon comes home we will be trying to remain at home with him to provide continuous care within our home setting. We have been advised to look for a place that will be medically suitable for all of his home care needs as he will require as much open space as possible to move around with his equipment…. I want to be able to focus on Landon’s care and recovery as he will need us to. Just a year ago Landon’s older brother, Michael, had 3 brain surgeries and we were at home off work caring for him for months till he recovered, also. We sold as much belongings as we could at that time for bills to stay home with Michael and now we are fighting to stay at home to care for Landon when he comes home in the months ahead….
The update provided on the same page today, July 8, 2019:
“I’ve been waiting to post till we had a better idea of how Landon was doing so this is how the last 3 days have gone……..3 days ago He started squeezing my hand 4 times to say “I love you more”….he was starting to become a little more alert of us, but it was only for a few minutes at a time and he wasn’t opening his eyes yet….yesterday he started to out breath his breathing machine and it didn’t have to kick in and breath for him but just a few times all day, than he had opened his eyes just to peek for a second, 2 times he moved his left hand, left leg, and gave us a thumbs up twice as we asked him to….this morning doctors decided to stop inducing him and wake him up to take out his breathing tube, but that only lasted an hour or so and it had to get put back in because his throat was swollen and not allowing enough air to pass through his throat…..now we are weaning him down in meds slowly to allow him a little extra time for his throat to unswell for him to be able to get the oxygen he needs when the breathing tube comes back out….we do now know that Landon will need therapy for his right arm and right leg to gain movement in them again…..we are unsure of everything else right now, but he is responding to us asking him to do things for us….he has restricted visitors during this time because of wanting him to do this slow and at HIS PACE not ours…..the less stimulation right now the better…..please pray for Landon and keep them prayers going, he needs as much help as possible….thanks.”
Police say alcohol was a factor in the crash.
Photo courtesy: Little Landon Luedke GoFundMe page