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Father's zeal to save his daughter lands him in jail

Karl Swanson's daughter was badly injured in car crash. He allegedly shoved a deputy and a paramedic in an effort to get to Krystyna.

By THOMAS LAKE
Published May 3, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - After the car crash, after the paramedics came, after the rescue helicopter touched down Tuesday night on Starkey Boulevard, a man in a black Volvo barreled into the accident scene and nearly sideswiped a deputy.

The man burst from the car and ran across the runway, inches from the chopper's whirling tail rotor. He pushed past the paramedics into an ambulance, where a young woman lay with broken bones and a head wound.

A startled officer asked him what he thought he was doing.

I'm a doctor, he said. That's my daughter.

Karl Swanson's cell phone rang about 10 p.m. Tuesday, just after he finished his salmon and left Carrabba's. The caller ID showed his daughter Krystyna's number, but a man spoke.

"Listen," he said. "Your daughter's been in a terrible accident. She's in critical condition. It doesn't look good."

The caller, apparently a paramedic who had found Swanson's daughter's cell phone, told him the crash location and hung up.

Swanson, a 48-year-old Holiday resident, is a doctor. He's actually an anesthesiologist - he owns Ultimate Image Cosmetic Medical Centre in Clearwater - but he said he used to work on a trauma team, bringing patients back from the brink of death.

Through the rising panic, Swanson saw one clear mission: Find his daughter and save her life.

Krystyna Swanson, an 18-year-old senior at Mitchell High School in New Port Richey, was driving a car full of friends up Starkey Boulevard when her late-model Mitsubishi coupe crossed the center line and collided head-on with a Dodge pickup truck, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Several people were hurt, but Krystyna suffered the worst injuries.

When Karl Swanson showed up, he swerved to avoid the helicopter, parked on the shoulder and, unable to open the car door, dove through the window.

Here's what landed him in jail: Authorities say he shoved both a paramedic and a 6-foot-9-inch tall state trooper in his zeal to reach Krystyna. (He says he remembers no such thing.)

Just before the cuffs went on her father, Krystyna smiled and waved. He spent the night in a blue jumpsuit in a jail cell; she was listed in serious condition Wednesday at Bayfront Hospital.

It wasn't Swanson's first brush with the law. He went on probation and paid a $10,000 fine after he was caught with cocaine in the Panhandle in 2000.

And he might have avoided this arrest, authorities said, if he had been patient.

"Basically, he made a very serious and stressful situation worse," said Trooper Larry Coggins Jr., a spokesman for the patrol. "When people just relax for a second and listen to reason, we always let them see their loved one."

But Swanson, who faces charges of battery of a law enforcement officer and battery of an emergency medical care provider, said he saw little choice.

"They told me my daughter was dying," said Swanson, who was released Wednesday on $10,000 bail. "They told me to go there. So that's what I did."

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or 727 869-6245. Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.

[Last modified May 3, 2006, 20:46:02]