Lemont Man Survives 50 Foot Fall From Cliff

LEMONT, IL — Almost two months ago, Lemont resident Seamus Hehir fell 50 feet during a rock climbing trip in Kentucky. He suffered injuries to his neck and spine, as well as a head wound. Hehir has now started his recovery journey and an online fundraiser has been created to help offset the costs of his hospital stay, surgeries, rehabilitation and an airlift to the hospital.

So far, $51,415 of a $75,000 goal has been raised. According to the fundraiser, the airlift alone will cost approximately $40,000.

Hehir said his family moved to Lemont when he was young and he attended St. Al's/St. Pat's Catholic school, before attending Providence High School in New Lenox. After attending film school at Columbia College in Chicago, the 26-year-old now works as a video editor at an advertising agency.

Hehir went on his first climbing trip in 2010, but didn't really fall in love with it for a few more years.

"I started going to the climbing gym, doing it more regularly, and eventually training for it about 5 or 6 years ago," Hehir said. "As I developed and got stronger so did my passion for it. The better I got, the more fanatic I became."

He started going on more climbing trips, and even went to Spain on one such trip.

"So needless to say I was pretty experienced and comfortable with where I was at when the accident occurred," Hehir said. Hehir had finished his climb on April 27 in the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, when he was setting up his rappel to come down and take his safety equipment down during his descent.

"This is something I've done countless times," Hehir said. "However this time I did not set it up correctly so when I came out of the anchors and weighted my rappel I surprisingly fell into a free fall."

Hehir fell 50 feet, and hit his back against the end of a boulder. He then hit the back of his head on the same boulder, and landed face down in a bush. He said he doesn't remember much after this, but knows his climbing partner disconnected him from his equipment and he was airlifted to a trauma one center in Kentucky.

"I was hospitalized for a week and diagnosed with a broken back, neck, and splitting my head open," Hehir said. He received a back surgery which fused together a clean break in his back with pins and screws. After his back surgery, he was tested to see if he could get out of bed.

He said it was tough because he had been on bed rest for five take so he had already lost a lot of function and feeling in his limbs.

"I not only was able to roll out of bed on my own but I did a lap around the hospital ward," Hehir said. "Now I only had partial feeling in a lot of my body due to nerve damage from the fall trauma but I had enough to balance well enough to do the lap around the floor after day one of surgery and I even did stairs on day two."

Soon after that, the 26-year-old made his way back to Lemont.

"The recovery has been slow and steady but everyday I've made a little progress," Hehir said. "I've been really lucky to be back at home with my family to help me get through this."

He said he credits his friends and co-workers who have shown their love and support.

"Everyone has really kept my spirits up because just about everything else with me was broken," he said. "When times got tough I always had someone to help me realize there is a light at the end of this tunnel."

Photo provided by Seamus Hehir.