Recovery ‘A Miracle’: Wife Of LI Cop Going Home For Christmas

PORT JEFFERSON, NY — A Long Island law enforcement family without their husband and dad since a near-tragic car crash in November, finally have him home for the first time since he left for work in what has been called truly a Christmas miracle.

Suffolk County Police Officer Timothy Thrane was discharged on Thursday from St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, where he received physical therapy and rehabilitation treatment as part of his recovery from life-threatening injuries he suffered on the job in a chain reaction crash on Nov. 3.

It was only six days after his discharge from Stony Brook Hospital Medical Center, where he was placed in a medically-induced coma after life-saving surgery for a brain bleed, as well as multiple broken bones.

Thrane was greeted at St. Charles by his family, as well as his blue family from Suffolk police, and hospital staffers as he walked out of the hospital, and was able to get up from his wheelchair, stand, and shake hands with well-wishers, a hospital spokeswoman said.

His wife, Janelle, said that to have Thrane home for Christmas is “the best outcome” that the family could have expected “…that he was not even awake a week and a half ago, and now he is coming home, it really is a miracle,” according to a news release.

The couple has three young children, who are ages 3, 5, and 11 years old.

Thrane said he felt amazing when asked how it felt to be discharged in time for Christmas.

“I couldn’t wait for this day. It’s all I ever wanted,” he stated.

Police department officials also called Thrane's discharge "a miraculous turn of events."

"We wish Officer Thrane the best in his continued recovery," read a post on the department's official Facebook page.

Thrane, a 35-year-old member of the force for three years, had been directing traffic after an earlier crash at the intersection of William Floyd Parkway and Yaphank Woods Boulevard in Yaphank at about midnight on Nov. 3, when police say a drunk driver struck the rear of a parked GMC Yukon causing the vehicle to strike him.

He ended up being put on life support and spent one month at Stony Brook.

Dr. James Vossvinkel, Stony Brook University Hospital Chief of the Division of Trauma, Emergency Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care who also serves as Suffolk police's chief consulting surgeon and medical director, predicted that Thrane would be home for Christmas at his discharge from Stony Brook.

He said it was "very hard to describe the emotions."

Thrane will still have to go through "a lot of suffering and pain, unfortunately" as he regains muscle to be able to walk again, Vossvinkel added.

"As a whole, he is going to be going home to his family," he said. "He's going to be a dad and he's going to be a police officer. So it's the most positive outcome to have, but he has a lot of work ahead."

A motorcade escorted Thrane and his family home.