by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Patrolling the St. Johns River in darkness is the last thing James Brunet remembers about the night his life changed.
The 41-year-old doesn’t remember the boat he was riding in smashing into a bridge piling. He doesn’t remember launching from the boat face first into the concrete remains of the old Fuller Warren Bridge. His next memory came three nights later when he woke up in a hospital bed, his head immobilized by a metal halo bolted into his skull, his jaw wired shut and a plastic tube sewn into his throat.
“I couldn’t move. I didn’t know why I couldn’t talk or breathe. I was scared as hell,” said Brunet.
He remembers the helpless feeling as he scratched out “9-1-1” over and over into his sheets, hoping someone would call for help.
Feeling helpless was unfamiliar territory for Brunet. In a six-year career with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, he was used to providing the help. He liked his job patrolling downtown on a mountain bike because it brought him face to face with the people on the sidewalks and streets.
It was a desire to help people that drove him to study law, he said. At night, on weekends, in between JSO duty days, Brunet studied at Florida Coastal School of Law. He had graduated in December and was preparing for the June Bar exam when his ill-fated Feb. 3 river patrol threw a serious wrench into his study schedule.
Brunet was on the 21-foot police boat that night because he’s certified as a SCUBA diver. The purpose of the patrol was to provide security for the Super Bowl crowds massed along the river banks and for the cruise ships serving as floating hotels.
Given the circumstances that put Brunet on the river on the dark, rainy night, it’s surprising to hear him look back and count his blessings. Rather than focus on the events that led to his shattered jaw, broken hand and broken vertebrates, Brunet looks at the “good fortune” that kept him alive and allowed him to wake up without brain damage or paralysis.
He thinks about the anchor that was thrown from the boat by the force of the collision. If it hadn’t lodged in the river bed, Brunet doubts rescuers would have found the boat or its driver, officer Keith Nazworth, who was thrown into the water. Nazworth wasn’t injured as badly and has recovered.
Brunet thinks about the outpouring of support he’s received from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and from Jacksonville’s legal community.
A circuit court judge who had suffered similar neck injuries told Brunet what to expect from rehab. The law firm of Spohrer Wilner, where Brunet clerked in his “down time” from the JSO and law school, helped pay medical bills.
“I’m more grateful than I know how to express,” said Brunet. “All the thoughts, prayers, generosity, kindness, that’s what carries me through.”