Brandon resident on ‘road to recovery’ after horrific crash

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This article was published 07/01/2025 (254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon resident Leon Flannigan, who was seriously injured in a single vehicle-rollover in November last year, is currently undergoing physical therapy and rehabilitation at Brandon’s Assiniboine Centre.

His wife Wendy spoke to the Sun, saying it’s going to be a “super long recovery” for the member of the Brandon Regional Search and Rescue Association.

“It was a horrific accident that happened,” added Wendy. “Three vertebrae in his neck were broken and he has severe damage to his spinal cord. He’s paralyzed from the neck down, and it’s going to be a long, rocky road for him to come back. But if anyone’s going to do it, it’s going to be him.”

Brian Fowell, a friend of Leon’s and fellow search and rescue colleague of more than a dozen years, said he agreed with Wendy. “There aren’t a lot of people like Leon. He’s a very special person the way he deals with people and animals. And we don’t know how many curves or bumps we’re going to hit, but Wendy will take each bump with him.”

Leon, who turned 78 last Saturday, is also a former Brandon Police Service officer and past chief of the Rivers Police Service.

He was driving back home from Inglis — located about 206 kilometres northwest of Brandon — at about 11 p.m. on Nov. 29 when he swerved to avoid a deer. The roads were icy and he “slid into the ditch at the intersection, as he was unable to stop,” an RCMP news release stated at the time of the crash.

Leon was alone, except for his search and rescue dog — a Belgian Malinois named Luke — whose life was saved, Wendy said, because he was in a canine crash crate.

“The crate was thrown 70 feet from the car when the tailgate opened, so if he hadn’t been in the crash crate, I wouldn’t have the dog today,” Wendy added.

When Leon’s Ford Expedition rolled and ended up in the ditch, emergency medical services were alerted through an iPhone feature called crash detection and were on the scene in 22 minutes, said Fowell.

And while police, fire and EMS responders were working to get Leon out of his SUV, his phone started to ring.

There’s an unwritten code among the friends, Fowell said, to check on each other while they are travelling alone. And since he hadn’t heard from Leon in a while, he was calling “about every 20 minutes.”

“Finally, someone answered the phone,” Fowell said. “So, I asked, who the heck is this and the guy says, ‘Who are you looking for?’ I knew I hadn’t dialed the wrong number, and so I said ‘Leon.’

“The phone moved down to Leon, and he yelled, ‘Brian, please help me, I’m in trouble. Come get Luke, and please get a hold of Wendy.”

That’s when, Fowell said, he and his wife Paulette jumped into their vehicle and drove for three hours to the Russell RCMP detachment to pick Luke up. The crash crate had broken, and Luke was running loose.

“He was pretty scared, and the RCMP had a tough time catching him, but an officer said he figured it out. He just opened the back doors of the vehicle, and thought Luke would get cold and come in. And he did.

“They were looking after Leon as well as his dog,” Fowell said.

A veterinarian saw Luke the next day and other than a few bruises and sore muscles, he was cleared, but now the dog has a scar around his eye, which has earned him the nickname “Luke Scarwalker.”

That November night, Leon was rushed to the Dauphin Regional Health Centre and then flown to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg on the province’s 24-hour air ambulance called Lifeflight.

He was transferred to Brandon’s Assiniboine Centre on Dec. 11.

And now Leon has a nickname, too, courtesy of the occupational therapy and physiotherapy staff, Wendy said.

“The ladies are trying to get him mobile; they are giving him excellent, excellent care. He’s not walking, but he stood for the first time on Friday.”

“They call him, ‘one more time,’ she said. They’ll say, ‘do this exercise, five times,’ and then they’ll say, ‘one more time,’ so that’s what they call him,” she said with a smile in her voice.

Visitors are being asked to limit visits to two to five minutes, and so far, there has been no reunion planned with Luke, said Fowell, adding, perhaps someday soon when Leon is ready.

An annual windup for the Brandon Regional Search and Rescue Association had to be postponed in November because it was scheduled for the 30th, the day after Leon’s crash.

It was held Dec. 28, when Luke was given an exemplary service medal for five years of service. And while Leon was absent, he was on the minds of all 30 members.

“We have a pretty good group of people, we actually call it a family, because we look after each other,” said Fowell.

“Instead of running from trouble, we seem to run to it. Looking after our fellow man is a good thing to do, it’s what we train for. My model is serving so others may live, and I live to that.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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