SEQUIM — After two weeks in Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center recovering from injuries suffered in a tractor accident, Sequim civic leader Tom Schaafsma is headed home.
“Today is a very big day for us!” Schaafsma’s wife, Jacque Schaafsma, wrote Thursday on a blog the family has used to track Schaafsma’s recovery.
“They are kicking Tom out of Harborview as he has made too much progress to stay.”
Steady improvement
Blog posts over the past few days have described Schaafsma as steadily recovering and walking more as he has been weaned off his intravenous medication and the supplemental oxygen he needed for certain activities.
Jacque Schaafsma wrote on the blog that doctors currently are determining how much home or outpatient care Tom Schaafsma will need once he returns to his home on Holleman Way in Sequim.
Tom Schaafsma, 63, was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center on Oct. 12 after the tractor he was operating rolled over, trapping him as he and his son were removing trees from his property.
Schaafsma, who was deprived of oxygen for nearly 10 minutes, suffered partially collapsed lungs and 10 broken ribs, according to family members.
Jacque Schaafsma wrote Thursday that her family will continue to post regular updates on her husband’s recovery on the blog, which can be found by visiting http://tinyurl.com/94khkno.
Tom Schaafsma, a semi-retired carpenter, has made a name for himself as a humanitarian across the North Olympic Peninsula and was a 2009 Clallam County Community Service Award recipient and 2009 Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.
Schaafsma has raised money for Rotary International disaster-relief kits for communities across the world and has traveled to Peru, Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, Japan and Kenya as part of Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club relief teams.
Schaafsma also has helped with numerous community-building construction projects in Sequim and has hosted six exchange students at his home with his wife.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
