Officer Jason Schechterle: The Human Toll

"Let me give you a snapshot of the horrors that my wife Susie, our family and I have endured because Ford Motor Company refused to fix its defective car. And let me just say that my wife Susie is the brave one, not me. She has been rock solid beside me and I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for her love and support.

At about 11:20 on the evening of March 26, 2001 I was en route to answer a call when a taxi cab slammed into the back of my Ford cruiser. The car instantly burst into flames. Witnesses said the flames shot more than twenty feet into the air. A Phoenix fire fighting crew spotted my burning patrol car and started pouring water onto the fire immediately while two of my fellow officers cut my seatbelt and pulled me out of the car. When I arrived at the hospital, my head and hands were charred to the bone. Susie watched as a priest gave me last rights before I went into... an eight hour surgery to scrape the burns and cover the wounds. Mercifully, the first three months were a haze, as I lay in a coma and underwent nineteen more surgeries.

I have now had seventeen additional surgeries for a total of thirty-six with more to come. I first woke up and was truly aware of what happen on June 12th, two and a half months after my injuries. On July 31st, six weeks later, I walked out of the hospital into a rehab center. Seventeen days later, I went home to find my two and a half year old son was afraid of me and for months refused to acknowledge that I was his father."