Please Welcome K-9 Jango #373
Please welcome retired K-9 “Jango” to the Project K-9 Hero Pack, as our 373rd Program Member.
K-9 Jango, is a 3-year-old male Belgian Malinois, who honorably served with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office for 1.5 years as a Patrol K-9, until an on-duty incident in November of 2025 left him paralyzed and unable to breathe on his own.
During his short but productive career, K-9 Jango was deployed twenty times, and was responsible for eleven criminal finds, as well as one physical bite apprehension. K-9 Jango worked with Spokane County’s SWAT Team, where he specialized in High-Risk Tactical Operations, Search Warrants, Building Searches, Rappelling, plus Helicopter Operations and Hoisting.
On the night of his career ending injury, Jango ran thru a commercial-grade, double-pane glass window in the dark, which left him unconscious and unable to breathe. His Handler performed CPR on the scene, and all the way to the ER, in an attempt to save his partner’s life.
Once they arrived, and they were able to get Jango stable, the ER Veterinary Staff immediately got him intubated, where a tube was placed in his trachea (windpipe) to maintain an open airway for delivering the oxygen he needed to survive.
Further evaluation determined that Jango has cervical spinal trauma and phrenic nerve damage, causing partial paralysis of limbs and the diaphragm. After a few days on the ventilator, it had to be removed since it is 100% oxygen and can cause toxicity in the blood. For a period of nine days, Jango had to be delivered oxygen through a hand held resuscitator manually for 24 hours a day. This took the effort of the entire Veterinary Staff, the Handlers on the K-9 Unit, and many volunteers to allow Jango the opportunity to recover. A long term ventilator was donated to help assist Jango, and he has been using that effectively over the last several weeks.
For the last two months, Jango has been slowly getting close to breathing on his own without the use of the ventilator. Jango’s diagnosis is a C3/C4 Hansen Type III disc (also known as Acute Non-Compressive Nucleus Pulposus Extrusion or ANNPE) from the traumatic event where a normal, non-degenerated nucleus pulposus explodes through the annulus into the spinal cord.
As of his admission into PK9H, Jango is completing daily physical therapy, learning to walk again, and is using a four-wheel mobility cart to move around. The prognosis is for Jango to be breathing and walking on his own over the next several weeks to months.
As of January 20th, 2026, K-9 Jango was officially medically retired. The county insurance paid out $97k in medical costs to get him to this point. However, starting on the day of his retirement, Jango’s medical care is no longer covered, and the entire remaining financial burden is now on his Handler. The current costs for Jango are approximately $150 a day for the rehabilitation process, which includes the supplies needed, tubing, physical therapy, and 24 hour veterinary care from his doctor.
This is an extremely rare situation, where in no documented cases that we are aware of, has a dog ever survived and fully recovered from. We at Project K-9 Hero are committed to seeing this process through for K-9 Jango, his Handler, and the amazing veterinary staff at the Pet Emergency Clinic and Referral Hospital in Spokane.
We are honored to step up immediately and pay the $150 a day needed for medical care, frequent office visits, necessary prescription medication, and any future diagnostic testing or surgeries for the rest of K-9 Jango’s life at 100%.
Please take a moment to welcome K-9 Jango as our 373rd Pack Member. We are honored to be protecting him, after all that he has been through fighting for his life, after protecting our communities and nation.
Our Medical Fund will help ensure that we always have funding for Heroes like Jango. Please donate today to continue supporting our life-saving abilities.
