SEATTLE — Jefferson County Commissioner David Sullivan was recovering Monday in Harborview Medical Center from unexpected back surgery, the result of a 40-foot fall from the bluff near his home last week.
The surgery, which lasted more than five hours on Friday, dashed Sullivan’s hopes of returning to work Monday at the county courthouse with the aid of a walker.
It is now uncertain when the first-term commissioner will be able to return home to Cape George and to work, said his wife, Connie Ross.
What was thought to be a side effect of the medication Sullivan was taking for his injuries “came up as a bone fragment pushing toward his spine,” Ross said from Sullivan’s Harborview room Monday.
Sullivan on May 1 fractured and compressed his lower (L-1) vertebra, and broke his right ankle in the fall.
No neck fracture
Ross said some “tremendous news” came Thursday when doctors concluded that Sullivan did not fracture his neck as thought and could go without a neck brace.
Originally, doctors thought that Sullivan had hairline-fractured the second neck vertebra down.
Ross said doctors concluded that they mistakenly read the neck X-ray.
Sullivan, 53, was performing annual maintenance on the bluff, pulling Scotch broom, when the earth under his feet gave way.
He plunged 40 feet down the bluff, landing on a ledge midway to the beach below.
The injuries left him in back and neck braces to restrict his movements while allowing him to walk with a walker last week prior to Friday’s surgery.
