Jonathan Sedman is now a first-time father, but he doesn’t know it yet.
The 41 year-old Surrey man was seriously injured last Saturday at Saratoga Speedway in Black Creek on Vancouver Island.
Sedman, a pyrotechnics professional, was setting up a fireworks show when a race car lost control, jumped the barricade and landed on top of him.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Shane Warde, who caught the crash on video.
“When I found out there was somebody underneath it, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s not good.'”
The crew managed to lift the race car off Sedman, who was still conscious.
“But he was complaining of numbness and tingling and a sore chest, ” said Oyster River fire Chief Bruce Green.
Sedman was airlifted to Vancouver General Hospital where he remains heavily sedated. Doctors are allowing his body to heal after the crash broke five ribs, his pelvis and left hip. He also ruptured his bladder and suffered a brain bleed.
“It was utter shock, utter shock,” said Sedman’s sister Jennifer.
“To hear that it was a car, it’s still not real to me.”
Sedman’s family rushed to the hospital, but his wife who was eight-months pregnant couldn’t stay long.
“We’re sitting there, waiting and waiting, and she starts to realize she’s having contractions every four minutes or so,” said Sedman’s sister.
She was sent to Langley, the only hospital with the space and ability to deliver a baby. Sedman’s son was born hours later.
“I think that he’s going to be pretty devastated that he didn’t get to see that moment for sure,” said his sister.
“But the response from family and friends and just strangers just reaching out has just been incredible.”
A GoFundMe campaign has already raised nearly 16-thousand dollars for the new family of three.
The baby has yet to be named. Sedman’s wife is waiting until he wakes up, so they can decide on that together.