Severely injured deputy on a long road to recovery
By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
A Walworth County Sheriff’s deputy is set to undergo numerous surgeries on a long road to recovery after being struck by a vehicle in the early hours of Aug. 1.
A 20-plus year veteran of the sheriff’s department and former officer in Burlington, Wayne Blanchard, suffered critical injuries while preparing to deploy a tire deflation device on Highway 120 north of Kniep Road in an attempt to stop a vehicle fleeing police at a high rate of speed. The driver of the vehicle, 25-year-old Tony Perales, lost control and struck the guardrail Blanchard had taken a position behind.
Beckett Runge, Blanchard’s daughter, hasn’t been able to see her father since the crash because of COVID protocols at the hospital, though she has been in close contact with her grandmother and stepmother to keep close tabs on Blanchard’s condition.
Runge said within the past week Blanchard’s already had about five or six surgeries, two of which – on his face, hands and legs – occurred within about the first 24 hours.
‘Hang in there, Wayne’
Shortly after the crash, Runge said, Blanchard was found with broken legs, broken hands, broken wrists, major damage to his face with only about a quarter of his nose still attached, major damage to his teeth and lips, extensive head damage and a large gash on his shoulder, to list some of the injuries.
“His partners didn’t really know what it was going to be like,” she said. “They just kept telling him, ‘Hang in there, Wayne; hang in there.’”
While Blanchard could talk and is still able to breathe on his own, Runge said with nerves starting to return, the intense pain has made things difficult and he has been on a ventilator.
Runge said Blanchard was scheduled to go back in for surgery on his hands on Wednesday, and he is expected to be in and out of surgery for his hands alone for the next two weeks.
And when Blanchard isn’t in surgery, Runge said hospital staff is still busy washing asphalt and debris from his wounds.
“Basically, if they’re not operating on him, they’re still taking him down to the OR to treat him like he’s getting surgery, but just to clean him and get all that out,” she said. “If they wipe his tears, gravel’s coming out of his eyes.”
While Blanchard was eating and drinking on his own, they are putting him on a feeding tube because as his nerves return, the sensitivity and pain from his broken teeth have made it incredibly painful to do so.
“If you have a cavity, imagine that pain – it’s every tooth,” she said. “Hot and cold both affect him, so he doesn’t want to eat or drink. Even a sponge in his mouth, just to keep his mouth moist or giving him a straw with some water, any time my grandma or stepmom help do that for him, flesh is coming out of his mouth.
“It’s gruesome, but that’s just what it is because of all the damage that this guy has caused him.”
The driver of the car that struck Blanchard, Tony Perales, 25, of Racine, has been charged with numerous criminal offenses, including first-degree reckless injury. He is due in Walworth County Court for a preliminary hearing Aug. 16.
Few places to touch
Runge said because of the intense pain, the only place her grandmother and stepmother are able to touch Blanchard to let him know they are there and to comfort him is his forehead, which she said they soon won’t even be able to do once doctors take skin grafts from his forehead to reconstruct his nose.
“Anywhere else it’s just so painful, or it’s broken or wrapped and bandaged, whatever it is,” she said. “You can’t hold his hand to let him know you’re there. The top of his head has staples in it, so you can’t do that.”
Despite the extent of Blanchard’s injuries, Runge said there is no brain trauma or internal bleeding – a real blessing.
“It’s a miracle,” she said, noting his bulletproof vest saved him. “I mean, he was ejected from his boots. He was hit so hard that his boots were still laced up.”
According to Runge, Blanchard was wearing a necklace containing his grandmother’s ashes at the time of the incident, which he was still wearing when found by his partners.
“That was still intact, and they got that off of him, so we think that she was with him,” she said.
More than injuries
Runge said that it’s not like Blanchard was just taken away from his job or from his family – he was taken away from everything.
According to Runge, the Blanchard side of the family was scheduled to take a trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in just a couple of weeks.
“We were all looking forward to it because it has been three or four years since we’ve all been able to go up there together, and that was taken away from us,” she said.
Runge said Blanchard was also set to meet his son Taran and his wife in Tennessee in October.
“And that was taken away from them,” she said. “It’s not that he just can’t pick anyone up, like he can’t pick his granddaughters up. They can’t even see him and he can’t even talk to them. All of that was taken away from him because of this man’s decision to do what he did.
“It’s very hard, it’s very frustrating, but overall, he’s in really good spirits,” she said.
Runge said family members have always told Blanchard to come home safe from his shift, and while he didn’t come home safe that night, he’s still going to come home.
“He’s alive, he’s coming home and he will be reunited with his family,” she said. “There’s a long road ahead for sure, lots of rehab when all is said and done with the surgeries, but he’s a fighter, so he’s definitely going to end up coming home.”
Community support
Runge said the community support has certainly been appreciated, with numerous people reaching out to ask how they can help.
Likewise, a Go Fund Me campaign setup by a family friend – listed under Walworth County Sheriff’s Deputy Recovery Fund – had raised just shy of $41,500 of a $50,000 in one week.
“My dad went to East Troy High School, my uncle went to East Troy High School, my brother and I went to East Troy High School, so the community support has just been amazing,” Runge said. “They all know him and they know who he is. They don’t just know him as a deputy. They know him as my dad; they know him as my grandparents’ son; they know him as Wayne. They know him in and out of the badge, which is really nice.”
Runge said that because numerous people have reached out about donating through methods other than the Go Fund Me page, the family has also set up a Wayne Blanchard Recovery Fund with a P.O. Box in Elkhorn: Wayne Blanchard Recovery Fund, P.O. Box 564, Elkhorn, WI 53121.
Runge said the family is also encouraging those interested to send letters and cards to the address, which the family is saving for a time that Blanchard is awake enough that either the family can read the cards and letters to him or he can read them himself.
Runge said there are other benefits in the works for later in August on bike night at LD’s BBQ restaurant in East Troy, as well as a ride in October.
