Luke Siegel passes after battling COVID

by admin

 Luke Siegel died Thursday morning after battling COVID pneumonia. He was admitted to the hospital earlier this week where he was diagnosed, according to social media posts from his family. He was 15 years old.

Even if you didn’t know him, you felt like you did. His family, especially his dad, Tim, worked hard for Luke. Battling when others would have given up. Luke was a constant in our hearts and minds and has been for six years now.

Luke was critically injured in a golf cart accident in July 2015. He suffered a traumatic brain and chest injuries from the crash nearly six years ago. Following the accident, he spent four days at a hospital in Lubbock, then four months at Cooks Children’s hospital in Ft. Worth before returning home.

Then in October of 2018, Luke was hospitalized for a brain bleed after a fall. He underwent surgery and recovered.

His father, Tim Siegel, founded the Team Luke Hope for Minds foundation after his son’s accident to educate and support other families impacted by a brain injury.

Luke Siegel was 9 years old when he suffered a terrible brain injury. It was the kind of injury that would have broken most parents – and Luke’s father, Tim, certainly had his share of struggles. But Tim Siegel is also a fighter, and he didn’t want other parents to go through the kind of despair he’s suffered. So he decided to do something. The result of Tim’s efforts is Team Luke Hope For Minds, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching the lives of children with brain injuries – and giving hope to the families of these children, through support and education.

Since its inception in 2018, Team Luke Hope For Minds has gained national prominence, garnering high-profile supporters like Patrick Mahomes and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. The success of the nonprofit stems from a heartfelt need to make a difference in an area that’s all too often been neglected. 

Team Luke Hope For Minds

A Fateful Day and a Long Road

On July 28, 2015, Luke Siegel and a friend decided to take a golf cart ride, an activity that seemed harmless enough. In fact, the unsupervised ride would lead to tragedy, when the cart flipped and landed on top of Luke. The 9-year-old suffered head and chest trauma, and he was in cardiac arrest for seven minutes.

After that terrible Tuesday, the Siegel family spent 44 days at Lubbock’s University Medical Center, followed by four months at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth. “We didn’t know that there was brain activity until day eight,” Tim recalls. The Siegels finally got to return home to Lubbock on Jan. 6, five months after the accident. Since then, their lives have been filled with various types of therapy: speech, OT and PT. For that first couple of years, Tim found himself driving to Fort Worth every week, where more intensive therapies were available.

It was during this period that Tim Siegel had an idea. He didn’t want other parents and children to suffer in the way he had. So in January 2017, Siegel founded the Team Luke Foundation. Six months later, he met a kindred soul in Austin, a woman named Ronda Johnson, who leads a nonprofit called Hope4Minds. Johnson’s organization was performing work very similar to Siegel’s, as both were dedicated to supporting children after brain injury. Get the Lone Star Politics newsletter in your inbox.

Johnson’s Hope4Minds nonprofit had been formed in 2012 in Austin, after an 11-year-old boy named JD suffered an anoxic brain injury due to a non-fatal drowning. JD’s family struggled with a lack of information and guidance, as well as mounting expenses for items such as house renovations related to his injury, transportation, medical equipment, and recovery-based therapies not covered by insurance. After receiving significant financial support from their community, JD and his family formed Hope4Minds to help other families experiencing similar struggles, and they named Johnson – a friend of JD’s mother – as its leader. “It’s very rewarding to be able to help families that need guidance and hope,” says Johnson. “The challenge is making families aware of our services and getting them to reach out for assistance.

In January 2018, the two groups merged, launching Team Luke Hope For Minds. While Johnson and Siegel are partners, the nonprofit has kept its home base in Lubbock. 

A National Effort

Since that inception nearly three years ago, Team Luke Hope For Minds has brought national awareness to its cause. The organization provides financial assistance, education, support groups, and counseling to families whose children have suffered a brain injury, while helping families with children who’ve suffered injuries from ATV and golf-cart accidents, car accidents, accidents at home, and non-fatal drownings. In the past three years, Team Luke has granted more than $600,000 to families all over the country.

But Team Luke Hope For Minds hasn’t forgotten its Lubbock roots. In fact, the organization recently partnered with Covenant Hospital to make Lubbock the new home of a Lokomat machine – a half-a-million dollar machine that helps patients with spinal cord injuries or brain injuries to learn to walk again. In fact, Luke himself now uses the machine three days a week.

Team Luke is filling a much-needed gap in the American health care landscape. “When you have a child with a brain injury,” explains Siegel, “a lot of what you’re looking to do isn’t covered by insurance, such as STEM-cell infusion, hyperbaric oxygen treatments, or acupuncture therapies, equipment – a lot of equipment. We’ve helped [pay for] adaptive bikes, adaptive car seats, lifts for their vans, things like that.”

As of early 2021, Team Luke Hope For Minds has helped families in 23 different states, and word is spreading. Last month, the organization was spotlighted in a feature story on ESPN’s “NFL Countdown.” Team Luke has had its share of exposure within the NFL, thanks to the help of a certain former Red Raider.

“Patrick Mahomes,” says Siegel with pride, “has never played a football game without a Team Luke Hope For Minds bracelet on his right hand. He also put ‘Team Luke Hope For Minds’ on his cleats last year.” In addition, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints – who is Luke’s hero – has come to Lubbock to help raise money for the cause. “We’ve been to about eight Saints games in the last five years,” Siegel notes. “We’re very close with the organization because I’m from New Orleans.” And all of this NFL goodwill led to the ESPN feature.  

However, despite the high-profile NFL endorsements, Team Luke’s mission isn’t to be confused with the concussion-related nonprofits that have risen up around football. “Certainly concussions are a big thing,” says Tim Siegel, “but we haven’t actually helped anybody yet who’s had a football specific injury.” Instead, Team Luke’s focus tends to be on traumatic or anoxic brain injuries.

Team Luke Hope For Minds

The Dangers of Golf Carts

In addition to his brain-trauma work, Tim Siegel wants to be sure that parents are aware of the dangers inherent in golf carts, which many parents view as harmless fun for kids. To help get these dual messages out, Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope has named March as Brain Injury Awareness Month, with a special focus on March 3 – Team Luke Hope For Minds Day – as three is Luke’s lucky number. Mayor Pope has also instituted July as Golf Cart Safety Awareness Month.

Regarding golf carts, Siegel says the danger is very real. “I think the biggest issue is every neighborhood has golf carts that are souped-up, modified, they’re taller, they heavier, they’re faster, and they’re prone to tipping. I think the big thing is just educating parents that they’re unsafe, that they’re dangerous. That, to me, is No. 1: educating parents.

“No. 2,” continues Siegel, “is realizing that simply wearing a helmet, seatbelts, those kinds of things …  I see every day, young children driving a golf cart with absolutely no adult supervision.”

But obviously, golf carts just represent the tip of the iceberg (although a very personal one for Tim), when it comes to brain danger for kids. For example, Siegel and Johnson see a lot of non-fatal drownings resulting in lasting brain damage. “It’s just about being careful,” says Siegel, “because your life can change after one second, one mistake. That’s what happened to us.” 

And the message is getting through. “Every single day,” Siegel says, “I have people come up to me and talk about how much Luke is making a difference in their life, or how impactful and inspirational he’s been through his journey and our story. And Lubbock’s response has been tremendous.”  

Team Luke Hope For Minds

Team Luke Hope For Minds was organized to provide resources and financial assistance to families of children who have suffered a brain injury. “Our mission,” says cofounder Ronda Johnson, “is to enrich the lives of children with a brain injury and give hope to their families through support and education. We believe the health and well-being of these children can improve over time if they have access to therapeutic services, adaptive equipment, and educational materials. We also believe that families can gain strength by connecting with one another – and that together they can grow beyond despair with health, peace and dignity.” 

To achieve this aim, Team Luke Hope For Minds provides the following resources:

  • Financial Assistance for therapies, treatments, adaptive bikes, daily living expenses, adaptive vehicles, home renovations, and more
  • Up to five hours of counseling for your family
  • Up to five hours with a personal advocate
  • Connection with other parent(s) in a similar situation
  • Virtual support groups
  • Brain Injury Resource Guide 
  • Annual Pediatric Brain Injury Conference –  All 38 presentations are on the website from this year’s conference. Visit teamlukehopeforminds.org, under the Events tab. 

You can donate in Lukes’s memory at the Team Luke Hope for Minds website. You can also send messages of condolence and support for the Siegel family at the Pray For Luke Siegel Facebook page.

From KCBD and Lubbock Avalanche Journal

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