STEVENSVILLE – An 8-year-old Stevensville boy remains in a Spokane hospital after a Sunday car crash on the East Side highway.
Landon Gates suffered a severe head injury in the two-car collision. He and his family were on their way to church when it happened.
Landon has not yet regained full consciousness but is beginning to make small, positive steps toward recovery.
In the meantime, the Bitterroot Valley community is rallying around this 3rd grader and his family. His classmates made him get well cards and a GoFundMe account to help the family with travel and medical expenses is growing.
Landon is active in sports and rodeo but when I asked his aunt and uncle about how they’d describe their 8-year-old nephew, the word they used was “loving.”
“He is the sweetest little boy you’d ever meet,” said Landon’s aunt, Laura Berner. “And he made sure that everybody knows that they just are so loved. And he’ll randomly tell you and call you out by name and say “I love you” and it’s so random. My sister said that was the last thing he said in the car before they got into the accident. He called everybody out by name and told them he loved them. He’s such a sweetheart like that.”
Laura tells me his brain injury is similar to severe whiplash or shaken baby syndrome. He was the most seriously injured in the Sunday morning crash.
