Surrey Mayor Watts, recovering from horse-riding accident, eyes return to work

Share

Surrey, B.C., Mayor Dianne Watts expects to be fully back in the saddle of city politics within a month.

Her horse-riding days, however, are over, she said.

Ms. Watts is at home recovering after a long hospital stay that followed a riding accident last month, one that left her with two fractured vertebrae.

"I count my blessings because it could have been a lot worse, and I have the use of my extremities, and there was no nerve damage or spinal-cord damage, which I am thankful for."

And, she said, "I am capable of carrying on the job."

Ms. Watts gave her first interviews Tuesday about her harrowing experience at 108 Mile House on July 23. She was in the midst of a vacation, visiting friends who operate a ranch in the area, when she joined others on a backcountry horseback ride.

Things went awry, with painful results. "The horses were galloping and my horse – I don't know whether he bucked or kicked the horse behind me – but it went from there. I landed really hard on the saddle, and came off and landed on my back on the ground."

She said when she hit the saddle, there was an audible crack.

"I couldn't sit up straight because my back had been broken at that point, and I had to get off the horse. Another horse in front moved in front, slowed my horse down and I fell off the horse."

Landing on the ground was worse than being bucked. "It was just excruciating," she said.

Ms. Watts was airlifted to hospital in Kamloops, then transported to Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock. She said she spent two weeks in hospital, and is happy to be home. "Two weeks in the hospital is long enough for sure."

Normally one of B.C.'s most visible politicians, Ms. Watts, 52, has stayed out of sight. She has been getting by with the help of a walker.

"I didn't think I would be using a walker at this point in my life. I thought it would be at least 30 years hence, but here I am just taking one day at a time."

For now, her focus is recovering her mobility through rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

"It's a transition as I go through the rehabilitation process," she said. "The next phase is to a cane, and the phase after that is to stand on my own."

Of her horseback riding, Ms. Watts, Surrey's mayor since 2005 after nine years as a city councillor, said: "I think part of [it]is that I believe I am still 20 years younger and I tend to push myself considerably.

"Perhaps that's something I just need to take a step back and have a look at because my expectation of myself is fairly high."

Her full-time focus is to recover enough to attend the next city council meeting, following a summer break, in mid-September. Councillor Judy Villeneuve has been appointed acting mayor.

"Our first council meeting is in September. I will be at that meeting and doing what I am capable of doing," Ms. Watts said.