Town cop battles ALS

For almost 27 years, Jason Felton had been Hayden Lake’s only police officer. He has arrested thousands of criminals and stopped countless drunken drivers.

His favorite part of the job, he said, is “saving lives.”

But it’s been months since Felton was on patrol. Diagnosed in March with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, the only life Felton can concentrate on saving right now is his own.

“You can’t cure it, so we’re trying to fight it,” he said Thursday.

Felton, 52, will retire as Hayden Lake’s police chief Sept. 1. He had hoped to stay on the job at least three more years, but he’s already showing symptoms of the disease and can’t go out by himself on patrol. He and his wife, Cynde, are spending all their spare time researching ALS, trying to find out as much as they can about it.

“I thought you could take a pill for 30 days and go back to work, but I couldn’t have been more wrong,” Felton said.

ALS gradually withers away the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control muscles, causing the muscles to weaken and waste away. People respond to the disease differently, and life expectancy varies. Cynde Felton said the only prescription drug available to fight ALS doesn’t do much, so the two are searching for alternative medicines.

“We’re grasping for straws, just trying to come up with different things,” she said.

Their insurance doesn’t cover alternative medicine, so family friends are banding together to provide not just moral support, but financial assistance.

An account has been set up in Felton’s name at the Public Employees Credit Union in Coeur d’Alene, and friends are organizing a retirement bash and roast for June 25, with ticket proceeds going to Felton’s treatment costs.

The support has been overwhelming, the chief said.

“I knew I had friends,” he said. “I just didn’t know I would have as many as I got.”

Hayden Lake resident Maynard Nisbet has known Felton for more than 20 years. He and new patrol Officer Dale Moyer, who will take over as chief in September, are helping lead the fundraising effort.

“Dale and I won’t go away until it’s taken care of,” Nisbet said.

Doctors tell the couple, who have four grown children between them, that it’s difficult to know what to expect. ALS affects people so differently, Cynde Felton said.

“You search for answers, but you’re not getting any,” she said.

Jason Felton first heard he might have ALS in January. At the urging of his sister, he visited the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz., where he got the official word.

“I actually thought I’d be back to work after leaving Mayo,” he said. “I wasn’t ready to retire. I had three more years left.”

But the disease was already taking its toll. His muscles were growing weaker.

Felton said he hates crying, but sometimes when he thinks about what has happened over the past six months, he can’t help it. Symptoms of ALS include fits of uncontrollable sobbing and laughing, and Nisbet said the realization that the disease is there contributes to that.

Felton said his best coping method is research.

“I’d like to control the disease instead of the disease controlling me,” he said. “Besides, I’m a cop, and cops are fighters.”

But the research can be frustrating, he said, because what helps some ALS patients doesn’t necessarily work on others.

“It’s trial and error,” his wife said.

Felton said he doesn’t feel sorry for himself and doesn’t want anyone else to, either.

“I don’t got time for that,” he said. “All I’ve got time to do is research it and study it.”

“And fight it,” Nisbet interjected.

Succumbing to the disease is not eminent, Felton said.

“There’s a lot of success stories. It can be done,” he said. “Some guys are out there with 10 to 15 years, but some guys are gone in two.”

“I’ve won a lot of battles in my life,” he added. “I can win this one.”