Fundraising goal to bring King County deputy home reached in less than a day

Update

Donations to help bring home an injured King County deputy poured in.

Less than 24 hours after a GoFundMe page was created, 1,680 people donated $103,466 of the $100,000 goal to help pay for County Sgt. Wing Woo’s return home.

Original story

King County Sgt. Wing Woo took his family to Hawaii last week to celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary. But celebration has turned into tragedy. Now his family is asking for help and KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don are putting out a call for action.

“I wish I was a politician right now who can pick up the phone and get things done … it’s just Ron and I — a couple chuckle heads on the radio,” Don said. “Let’s raise $100,000 this afternoon and bring this sergeant home. We can do it in $10, $15 and $20 increments.”

Woo has been a King County deputy for 32 years. He has two children with his wife Jackie — a 14-year-old son, and a 12-year-old daughter.

While body surfing on June 24 with his son, Woo was struck by a large wave and was knocked unconscious as his head hit the seafloor. His son was able to pull him out of the water and onto the beach as Woo suffered a cardiac arrest. CPR was performed for several minutes. He was soon taken to Maui Memorial Hospital where he spent days in a coma on life support.

“This is a thing that every family does,” Ron said. “You go to Hawaii and goof off in the surf, and it takes just one wave and there he is. The story resonated with me. I want to help him.”

Doctors determined he suffered a spinal injury — he has limited mobility below his neck. Water and sand also entered his lungs causing other problems.

Now, Sgt. Woo is awake. He is showing signs of moving his toes. That’s the good news. But the Woo family needs help.

Woo needs to be moved back home to the Seattle area where he can get further treatment at Harborview Medical Center. But the only way to transport him is via a medical airplane. The cost is considerable.

“This family is so humble, I had to call them today and convince them to put up a GoFundMe page,” Don said.”They didn’t have a GoFundMe page yet. They were just going to try and figure it out. We walked through that process today of setting up this page.”

Woo’s insurance is covering a portion of the $65,000 bill for the trip. A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise up to $100,000. The medical airplane service requires $50,000 up-front just to take off. There are also other medical costs. Ron was the first to donate.

“The plane is there, it just won’t fly him home until they have the money,” Don said. “It is a travesty that he is sitting in a hospital right now, he can’t move … he’s served his community as a first responder for 32 years and the plane won’t get off the ground.”

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