Bellingham gardener who was hit by car ‘trying to cope the best way she can,’ family says
It’s been nearly a month since the life of Bellingham gardener Kim Eagle forever changed — a month of pain, a month of surgeries, a month of healing and setbacks, a month of coming to grips with what happened to her and how that instant changed everything for her.
On the morning of July 9, Eagle, who owns Kim’s Care Gardening Service, was loading a bag of bark into her trailer parked along the street in the 2000 block of Eldridge Avenue when she was hit from behind by a red Mitsubishi.
The impact pushed Eagle into her trailer, according to Whatcom County Superior Court documents, resulting in the immediate severing of one of her legs and injuring her other leg so badly that it had to be amputated above the knee.
Eagle was taken to St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham and later airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle due to the severity of her injuries, documents state.
She had to be resuscitated twice the day she was struck, before both her legs were amputated the next day to save her life, Eagle’s daughter-in-law Bobbie Dickinson told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
In addition, Dickinson said Eagle suffered a broken pelvis, a tear in her intestines, head injuries and has developed clots on her lungs, and she has since undergone several surgeries and cleanings and washings on her legs to fight off infection.
“This will change her life forever, she was such a fun vibrant loving busy lady,” Dickinson wrote. “I cannot even imagine. She is trying to cope the best way she can, she has her good and bad days.”
Dickson and Eagle’s friend Sherry Boyd-Yost set up a gofundme page to help Eagle as she attempts to recover from the tragedy. As of Friday, the effort had raised more than $50,000 toward its $500,000 goal.
“I am starting this ‘GO FUND ME’ to help her get through this very tough time that lies ahead,” Boyd-Yost wrote on the page. “She is a beautiful, earth loving, hard working woman! A person I love so dearly!”
Vehicular assault suspected
On Tuesday, Aug. 3, the Bellingham Police Department arrested Mark David Johnson, 31, on suspicion of vehicular assault as a result of the July 9 crash.
Johnson is suspected of falling asleep behind the while seconds before his car struck Eagle, court documents state, which add that Johnson also took methamphetamine the night before.
Police arrived to find Johnson sitting on the grass across the street, documents state, and he was also taken to St. Joseph’s hospital for treatment of injuries.
A passenger in Johnson’s car told police that he noticed Johnson falling asleep while driving, with his body twitching and arms moving. The passenger told police he asked Johnson four to six times to pull over or to get an energy drink, even saying he would walk home, but Johnson said he was fine, court records show.
Shortly afterward, the passenger reported that Johnson fell fully asleep and his hand jerked the steering wheel to the right, causing the Mitsubishi to strike Eagle as she worked, documents show.
At the hospital, Johnson admitted to using methamphetamine the night before, and a Washington State Patrol drug recognition expert performed tests on Johnson at the hospital and determined there was evidence of “Johnson being on the downside effect of a central nervous system stimulant,” documents state.
Jail records show Johnson is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
‘Such a twilight zone’
Before July 9, Eagle was known for working and playing hard.
“I have known Kim for 44 (years),” Boyd-Yost wrote on the gofundme page. “We raised our kids together. We worked out together. We loved to go dancing, and play (Frisbee) in the park adjacent to where we shared a home with my first husband, Kim and her son Lee and daughter Casey.”
At home, Eagle has a horse, a donkey, three dogs, fish and a bird, Dickinson told The Herald.
“We are able to care for her place while she is gone and will reconstruct her house to make it completely wheelchair accessible when the time comes,” Dickinson wrote.
Paying for those changes to Eagle’s home are part of the reason for the gofundme page, Boyd-Yost said, but just covering Eagle’s medical expenses will be difficult. From the first week after the crash Eagle’s family received two bills totaling $60,000, according to Dickinson.
“We are praying somehow this will get paid somehow,” Dicksinson wrote.
But right now, the first priority is Eagle’s recovery.
Due to some of her injuries and the medication she has been on, Eagle has struggled to understand what happened to her and how her life has changed, Boyd-Yost wrote. The medical staff hasn’t even broached the subject of prosthetic legs, yet.
Eagle has not wanted to take the pain medications that make her too foggy, Boyd-Yost wrote, but not taking them has made the pain too much.
“This has been such a twilight zone for Kim,” Boyd-Yost wrote. “She is really going through such torture. It has been a slow evolution of waking up from being in an induced coma for 13 days and slowly bringing her up to semi aware.”
‘Love from everyone is amazing’
Eagle has told family and friends that she misses her animals and wants to go home and see them, but Dickinson said she’s also been battling confusion and memory lapses of events that happened a few years earlier.
“This is such a life changer for all of us but we will be there for her whatever it may be, always!!” Dickinson wrote.
When Eagle’s infections have completely cleared and she is able to leave Harborview, the plan is to move Eagle to a rehabilitation center, before bringing her home.
And despite all the difficulties Eagle and her family and friends have experienced over the past month, they’ve remained grateful for the support they continue to receive.
“We want to thank the community, the medics, friends, family and so many people we do not know that are blessing her in so many ways, which I cannot begin to say how grateful we are.,” Dickinson told The Herald. “The love from everyone is amazing.”
This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: Kim Eagle developed blood clots on her lungs after she was hit by a car July 9, 2021. The information was corrected Aug. 9, 2021.
