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Published on Sunday, October 17, 2004
in the Gainesville Sun
CEDAR KEY - Florida Highway Patrol Corporal Virgil Sandlin can now joke about how how he's qualified to be the spokesman for Florida's Save the Manatees campaign.
"Now that I've been hit with a (propeller) I can understand what they go through," Sandlin said Saturday, a few hours before he was finally able to return to work.
Sandlin, 50, was critically injured Aug. 11 while taking his boat for a test drive near North Key after having some work done on it. The accident happened near North Key about 5 p.m. Sandlin said he was thrown from the boat when he hit the throttle on the 90-horsepower motor.
"Over the side I went and the next thing I know, I'm in the channel and the boat is going in circles and I'm thinking, 'This is not right,' " Sandlin said. "My first thought was that if I didn't get back into that boat, I would never live it down."
Acting on that thought nearly cost Sandlin his life.
He was able to swim back to the boat as it circled slowly nearby and had hoisted himself partway back over one side before being sucked under the boat.
"There was no pain on contact (with the propeller), and in fact there was no pain at all really until later when they did the skin grafts," Sandlin said.
The propeller sliced both legs, leaving wounds that required more than 1,000 stitches and nine units of blood as well as multiple surgeries during a three-week hospital stay.
"The only time I worried about dying was right after it happened and I put by hand down to feel my leg and then I was more concerned about drowning," Sandlin said.
The blood Sandlin was losing could have easily attracted a shark from the many species that inhabit the shallow coastal waters around Cedar Key. Instead, about five minutes after being injured, Sandlin said he noticed a dolphin circling around him and maintaining a distance of 10 to 15 feet. The dolphin continued swimming around Sandlin the entire 40 to 45 minutes he was in the water, he said.
Another area resident, David Williams, and one of Williams' friend were able to get Sandlin to shore and he was flown to Shands at the University of Florida for his first-ever hospital visit as a patient.
On Saturday morning, Sandlin was one of the volunteers at the Christ Episcopal Church baked-goods booth during the Cedar Key Seafood Festival where he was getting a lot of ribbing from fellow church members about how they would have to begin easing up on the accelerator once Sandlin returned to duty. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Sandlin finally slid back behind the wheel of his patrol car for the first time in 65 days.
The 26 1/2 year FHP veteran said he will make one change before he gets back in his boat.
On the advice of retired Florida Marine Patrol officer Billy Geiger, Sandlin plans to attach a safety lanyard clipped on his clothing to the boat's motor that will automatically shut off the motor if he pulls on it hard, for example by falling overboard.
"He (Geiger) told me it was like wearing a seat belt - it can save your life," Sandlin said. "You don't plan to get in a (car) wreck and you don't plan to fall overboard, but you can plan to be safe. I will only get back in my boat with a safety lanyard, just like I only drive when I have a seat belt on."