Officer, dog are partners in healing

Published 10:58 pm Tuesday, August 28, 2007

EVERETT — She’d never had surgery before, never spent the night in a hospital, never taken a ride in an ambulance.

That was before July 15, when Everett police officer Suzanne Eviston and her police dog partner, Axle, were seriously injured responding to a burglary call in south Everett.

A man fleeing from police crashed a sport utility vehicle into Eviston’s patrol car.

Eviston suffered multiple broken bones on her left side, including 10 broken ribs. Her pelvis was shattered, her spleen ruptured. The dog, a big black 9-year-old German shepherd, broke a leg in two places.

“I feel really fortunate to be here, I really do,” Eviston, 37, said Tuesday with Axle wagging his tail at her side.

She met with reporters for the first time since the crash in a press conference at Providence Everett Medical Center, where she is undergoing rehabilitation. Dressed in a brown sweat suit and sitting in a wheelchair, Eviston said it was the first time since the collision she’s put on anything other than a hospital gown.

For the last two months, doctors, hospitals and ambulance rides have become part of a daily routine for Eviston.

“Thank God I’ve been recovering at a really good rate,” she said. “Both of us have some healing to do.”

This week, doctors plan to remove external metal stabilizing rods from both patients. Eviston has a rod holding her pelvis in place; a similar rod is holding Axle’s rear left leg together.

“We’re two days apart from … taking a different step in our rehabilitation,” Eviston said.

Now, the police partners must start the hard work of rebuilding muscles and getting back in shape to return to work.

“It’s going to be a while,” Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said. “We don’t have any reason to believe that won’t happen.”

Christmastime is the goal Eviston has set to be back on the beat. More realistically, it will be sometime next year when the duo put on their uniforms again, she admits.

Now, she’s looking forward to swimming and going on walks with Axle.

She hopes to go home in a couple weeks, once she’s able to walk on crutches, she said.

She spends more of her time thinking of the future and not reliving the collision.

Eviston said she has no memory of the impact or the week of surgeries that followed.

“You don’t expect to go to a call and get crunched,” she said. “That was pretty surprising, waking up and finding myself put together by different things.”

She’s never seen a patrol car as badly damaged as the car from which she was pulled, she said.

Detectives found 60 feet of skid marks left by the stolen Jeep Cherokee that police allege crashed into the officer’s patrol car.

The Jeep’s driver, Alan Brian Waterman, 19, of Everett, is awaiting trial on charges of vehicular assault, second-degree burglary, second-degree theft and possession of methamphetamine. He’s being held at the Snohomish County Jail on $200,000 bail.

Waterman admitted smoking methamphetamine just before he and two companions broke into a business, court papers said. A witness called police.

When officers arrived, Waterman drove away past two police cars but slammed into Eviston’s car, documents said. The other two men were booked on burglary charges.

Eviston said she hasn’t focused on the man allegedly responsible for her injuries.

“God sends you what you can handle,” she said. “For some reason he felt I needed to endure this, and that’s OK. I really haven’t had any anger.”

As for Axle, who visits the hospital every few days, he’s been more sweet and loving than usual, Eviston said. He’s recovering by taking lots of naps.

“These dogs endure a lot, they’re bred to endure a lot, and they’re chosen to be really strong animals both mentally and physically. And he is,” Eviston said. “He seems ready to get going again like I am.”

Mostly, Eviston said, she wants to thank her fellow officers and the people of Everett.

The number of cards, many sent by children, has been overwhelming, she said.

One person, an Everett woman, 65, sent Eviston a handmade quilt with scenes of Everett on it — sea gulls and Puget Sound.

“‘I know that you work mostly with people that aren’t great. I want you to know that there are good citizens in the community of Everett and I want you to see this and think of the good people,’ ” Eviston said the woman wrote. “It was really sweet.”

With a shake of his head, Axle put his front paws on Eviston’s lap. She responded by running her hand over his head.

“I’m really glad that he’s here,” she said. “He’s done a lot for the citizens of Everett. He’s done a lot of service.”

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.