Scotch Broom Nearly Kills Port Townsend Commissioner

Scotch Broom Nearly Kills Port Townsend Commissioner

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Story Published: May 3, 2005 at 6:38 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:56 AM PDT

By George Howell

SEATTLE - Scotch broom almost killed a man near Port Townsend.

Jefferson County Commissioner David Sullivan was trying to clear out the weed by his house at his Cape George home when he fell 40 feet.

Sullivan is recovering at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Sullivan tells me he feels "incredibly lucky" to have even survived that fall. He says all of a sudden, the ground just gave way beneath him.

"I feel about 40 feet with this bluff just caving underneath me in a place I'd walked before," Sullivan said. "I could have been buried alive or something."

Luckily one of his friends saw him fall and called 911.

Sullivan cracked the second vertebra down his neck, and fractured the lower vertebra in the curve of his spine. He also broke his ankle.

Doctors tell him he will have to wear a neck brace for the next one to three months, and a back brace for three months.

Sullivan, who is a former nurse, says he's counting his blessings.

"I just feel like, even with the injuries I've got, I could have been hurt much worse."

Sullivan is already up and moving around by use of a walker, and he says he is ready to get back to work.

He will have to undergo some physical therapy, and the commissioner says one of his agenda items when he gets back will be to make more buildings wheelchair accessible.

It's something he says he's always been passionate about.

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