Carlos Olmedo, a police officer in Brooklyn, has had an almost miraculous recovery from a horrendous accident that left him with traumatic brain injury in May.
Olmedo, 31, was chasing down several suspected car thieves in Bensonhurst in the early morning May 16 when he was hit by a motorcycle, according to a profile of him Friday in the New York Daily News.
The young cop says he was thrown 40 feet in the air and landed on his left side. He sustained severe brain injury and was in a coma for 11 days, clinging to life. When Almedo finally regained consciousness, he learned the seriousness of his injury and understood that his recovery would not be easy. At first, he didn’t even remember his infant son.
According to the News, Almedo prayed for a miracle. He was in the hospital for 2 1/2 months, and has made steady progress.
At this point the police officer has undergone brain surgery, and has a dent in the left side of his head “the size of a fist,” according to the News. Physicians have grafted part of his skull bone onto his stomach, and they will reattach that piece of bone to Omedo’s skull this month.
The police officer, who also had his ankle crushed in the accident, isn’t back to his old self, but is happy to be alive. Olmedo has some memory loss and his speech is slurred a bit, The News reported.
The cop returned to his old stationhouse last Thursday, about two months after his near-fatal accident, where he was greeted by his collegues and New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. It was a hero’s welcome.
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24th July 2010 at 9:54 pm