After defying death, officer back at work
Cop who almost died after car crash returns to work
Sgt. Patricia Ravine was helping a driver along I-75 more than a year ago when a car rammed her. Not only can she walk again, but now she’s back at work.
Davie Police released a photograph Thursday of one of its ranking officers, Patricia Ravine, who has a smile as wide as her sergeant’s chevrons. Who is that happy on the job? Someone who nearly died 14 months ago. A woman who loves being a cop and serving the town where she has worked 10 years and where her husband, Sgt. Shawn Ravine, also protects the public.
“I’ve come to realize there will never be an explanation about why it happened,” Ravine, 36, said. “All I can do is pick up and move forward.”
Ravine was on patrol during the midnight shift and stopped to help a driver in a rollover crash the night of Aug. 3, 2016, when a Kia mowed her down on the shoulder of Interstate 75, investigators said.
Ravine endured a brain bleed, fractures to her neck, back and hips and needed surgery to remove a piece of the Kia’s windshield from her right foot.
“To see her stand up again, to see her talk, it’s amazing because it could have been so much worse,” Shawn Ravine, a supervisor in the detective bureau, said in 2016 when his wife was released from a rehabilitation center. “It’s a miracle and we have to thank God that she’s here.” Ravine thinks so, too. “I cannot even begin to rationalize or understand how I overcame this whole thing,” Ravine said. “I very much have a belief in the higher up. God had me that day.”
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said in January that in 2016, there were more than 200 crashes and 5,518 citations issued to drivers who failed to obey the state’s “move over” law. It requires motorists to shift a lane away from where first responders — cops, firefighters, utility vehicles and Road Rangers — may be tending to an emergency. And if a lane change is not possible, drivers must slow down, 20 mph less than the posted speed limit.
Thursday was Ravine’s first day back at work, where she began a new administrative position supervising 15 officers who work in the public schools as well as at the campuses of Nova Southeastern University and Broward College.
“We’re just grateful to have her back,” Davie Police Capt. Dale Engle said. “It’s been a long struggle. I know that she has fought hard to get back to a position where she can work full time at the job that she loves. We’re very grateful for the support from the community.”
The Ravines have four teenagers at home, ages 13 to 16, and for a while during Patricia Ravine’s recovery, some roles were reversed. The kids had to take on more responsibilities, including the eldest girl who, as a new driver, had to chauffeur her mother around for three months.
“I’m not the only one who survived this and had to go through it,” Ravine said. “My husband has been my primary caretaker, after my mother did everything for the first six weeks.”
Physical therapy for her body and occupational therapy for her brain are completed. She is still in talk therapy.
“Before I was as far along with therapy as I am now, I had a very difficult time maintaining my patience level,” Ravine said. “And I had no filter. If I thought it, it came out of my mouth or you could see it on my face. I had to re-learn social skills.”
She said at one point, her doctors were not sure she should return to work.
“But I needed that purpose and challenge,” Ravine said of reaching for a goal. “Going back to work made me become strategic about things, especially as a supervisor. I have to maintain my professionalism for my colleagues and in the community.”
As her healing progressed, she had to pass some tests: an exam to qualify for the new job; a driving simulator test on a computer to make sure her reactions were fast enough and, as is routine for a cop, to qualify on the gun range.
Ravine said her memory is fine, except for the two weeks after the crash, which she doesn’t remember.
“I don’t even think I have short-term memory loss,” Ravine said. “It just takes me a bit to recall things that have happened recently. You lose brain cells when you have a cognitive brain injury, and I needed memory retraining for thought processing and speed of thought processing.”
She says she is grateful for the tremendous support she has received “from the department and the town council and community members, the union and my family. It made my recovery that much easier. There was a lot of understanding that it was going to take time. I got cards nationwide from people I didn’t know.
“Not everybody has been given the same level of support from other police agencies that I have been given,” she said. “They have been just so amazing with me.”
She said Davie Police Officer Abby Evans set up a “meal train” and people provided breakfasts, lunches or dinners for the Ravine family.
“The [Fraternal Order of Police] and Davie Fire Rescue signed up for it, and others did anonymously, too,” Ravine said. “There was support everywhere. I’ll never be able to express how thankful I am for everybody who has helped me through this recovery process.”
One of her last hurdles?
“I had a problem putting on the uniform,” Ravine said. “Wednesday night, my husband helped me and I put my gun belt and everything together. I was a bit anxious.”
The uniform symbolizes being vulnerable to whatever the job might bring. But putting it on meant she was ready to resume police work, and she dressed in her work blues Thursday morning.
“It’s closure,” Ravine said. “It’s done and over. I’ve worked very hard. I overcame, and life goes on.”