EVERETT — Jim Dulaney peered down with a mix of dread and curiosity.
“I half expected not to see my foot,” the Everett man said.
He not only could see his toes, he could wriggle them.
Later, with the help of a medical device that amplifies sound, he heard the blood circulating from his big toe to his baby toe.
“Thank goodness,” he recalls thinking.
Dulaney, 58, suffered a compound leg fracture as well as broken ribs May 22. A Bothell man allegedly used his pickup truck as a weapon to run over Dulaney’s leg in a parking lot in the 9800 block of Evergreen Way.
Dulaney was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. An orthopedic surgeon installed a titanium rod in his leg to put the bone back together. A vascular surgeon performed a bypass to get blood down to his toes. Dulaney had three surgeries in five days.
“The back of his leg across the calf muscle was basically cut in half,” family and friends posted on social media at the time.
In the hospital, Dulaney drew a happy face onto a yellow sock and called his right foot “George.” It was George’s job to make sure his left foot was propped up and getting circulation.
Dulaney spent 17 days in the hospital. Doctors have told him to expect more surgeries and a slow recovery. He has been given no timeline.
“Everything is day by day,” he said. “There is always the chance of infection.”
On Friday, Joshua William Painter, 42, was charged with first-degree assault, hit-and-run and attempting to elude police.
Dulaney said Friday he can’t discuss what happened that early Sunday morning until after the guilt or innocence of the defendant is determined. He has neither read nor watched any news coverage of his ordeal, figuring the time for that will come after the accused has his day in court.
His recollection of the events are included in the charging papers filed Friday as well as a search warrant.
According to court papers, he told detectives that he spoke to Painter about dumping items in the parking lot and asked him to remove them and to leave.
Painter allegedly pulled a blue pipe out of the back of a Chevrolet Avalanche and chased Dulaney through the parking lot while trying to hit him with the pipe. The defendant reportedly dropped the pipe and Dulaney grabbed it.
That’s when Painter hopped into the truck and ran over Dulaney and hit a parked car nearby, court papers allege.
Police initially believed Dulaney was dragged by the truck over to the sidewalk by Evergreen Way.
However, in a search warrant, he told a detective that he had to clench his pant leg closed to keep bone fragments collected while he slid himself along the ground to get closer to the roadway. That’s when somebody heard his calls for help.
These days, Dulaney is thankful for friends, family and to be home again.
While he was in the hospital, his grandson and son-in-law made him a wheelchair ramp. Neighbors lengthened it several feet to lessen the slope.
Dulaney is known in some circles around Snohomish County as “Jim the Fence Guy.” He’s built hundreds over the years, which has made him a keen observer of human nature.
He’d always tell himself: “You do it right because it is the right thing to do.”
He fondly recalls the gratitude of a blind woman with a service dog when he offered to help the dog leave a paw print in wet concrete. He wanted her to have a keepsake that she could feel.
Dulaney said he tried to do the same quality work for customers, whether they were millionaires or on a modest income.
His goodwill was returned when news of his injuries made the news.
He has received support of friends and strangers from North Carolina to Hawaii as well as customers he met along the way.
Many contributed to a gofundme.com account and left messages of encouragement. That account can be found at gofundme.com/Jimthefenceguy.
“I kind of got my eulogy from all the people I built fences for,” he said.
These days, he is recovering. Much of his time is spent on a brown couch in the living room.
He has lost weight and muscle, but certainly not hope to be active again.
In a perfect world, he will get to return to surfing with his high school chums in southern California. He looks forward to the annual reunions.
If he can’t surf like he once could, he will accept that.
He knows his friends will help him, just as they have a childhood pal who became a paraplegic from injuries suffered during the Gulf War. His friend now rides the waves in a kayak-like surfing device with a little help from others.
“You play the cards you are dealt,” Dulaney said. “You don’t feel sorry for yourself. It is still up to you to live your life.”
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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