A Shreveport police motorcycle officer was injured Wednesday when another driver turned in front of him near Christus Schumpert hospital. Health care workers who noticed the wreck rushed to the scene, lifted the truck enough to get the injured officer out from under it and began treating him. Cpl. Breck Scott suffered a broken leg.
I remember when the accident happened for two reasons. One is because Cpl. Scott was one of the motorcycle officers who sat in front of my house one afternoon ticketing speeders on my street. As it turns out, he and Steve know each other so Steve walked out and visited with him for a while that day.
The second reason I remember the accident is because in the news story at the time, one of the citizens who ran outside to help spoke about how they all banded together to lift the car off of Cpl. Scott. It was quite moving (apologies to KTBS but I'm quoting your whole story; it may not be there later!):
Sherita Gilbert's minister had told her that God had plans for her. It happened sooner than she expected -- two days later, when Gilbert and her aunt became an injured Shreveport police officer's Guardian Angels.
Gilbert had just gotten off work at a hospice this past Tuesday morning when a motorcycle officer collided with a pickup whose driver had turned in front of him. The driver of the pickup had been blinded by the morning sun. Gilbert and her aunt, Vivian Turner, saw the accident at the corner of Fairfield Avenue and Olive Street and jumped into action to help Officer Breck Scott.
"He went up in the air, came over and hit the hood and hit the ground," Gilbert said. "The truck ran over him from the waist down." Just looking at it, we didn't think he was alive," Turner said of her initial reaction to seeing the injured officer.
Turner called 911 and Gilbert ran to help Scott, whose legs were pinned under a tire. With the help of another woman and a man who also saw the accident, they managed to lifted [sic] the wheel off the officer, who had been able to radio headquarters for help. The Fire Department had not yet arrived.
"I couldn't get it at first," Gilbert said. "I said, 'Lord, please give me strength to get this truck off of him.' It was like God came quickly. It seemed like a piece of paper that you could just pick up."
Gilbert believes divine intervention gave her and the others the strength to lift the truck. On Sunday, her pastor told her that God was going to use her to help someone, she said. Little did she know that would happened two days later.
"Just doing what I had to do," Gilbert said of their actions. "I would not have thought twice for anybody." Gilbert said there is a fourth Guardian Angel: The man who helped them lift the truck disappeared and she doesn't know who he is. Scott suffered a broken leg but is expected to make a full recovery. He's walking on crutches and has begun physical therapy at LSU Hospital. Gilbert and Turner visited him at the hospital on Thursday.
As long as that link remains active, there is video there of Sherita Gilbert telling her story. Watch it.
Tonight there was an update on Cpl. Scott. That "full recovery" they were predicting hasn't quite happened yet. Cpl. Scott has a severe bone infection and is at risk of losing his leg:
The doctor told him the infection was so bad he risked losing his leg if he didn't have the high-tech surgeries done, Scott said.The surgery will be done in Houston, TX.
Scott's motorcycle riding days are over but he wants to save his career. No medical retirement for him.
"It's going to be four surgeries. The first three, they're going to go in there and clean (the infection) out and put some antibiotic wash in there," Scott said Thursday at his home in Shreveport. "The fourth surgery, they're going to go four inches down my leg and break it right here and put that apparatus on." That device will stretch his leg and allow the bones to connect again so that his injured leg can become the same length as his other one. "It could take up to two years to go in there and work on that bone and get it to grow and fuse to that ankle," Scott said.
I applaud Cpl. Scott's service to our community and I am humbled by his courage, his fighting spirit, and his desire to finish his police career without taking medical disability.
SIGIS is opening a fundraiser for Cpl. Scott: any donation to my tip jar (link also in sidebar) between now and August 15 will be forwarded to the fund that has been set up at Capital One Bank for Cpl. Scott. If you want your donation forwarded to this fund, please put Cpl. Breck Scott on the donation. If you prefer, you can make the donation directly to Capital One Bank by calling 318.674.3855 and tell them you would like to donate to Corporal Breck Scott's fund.
Cops put their lives on the line for us on a daily basis and don't get paid nearly enough for it. I'm happy to do anything I can to support them.
(Note: Cpl. Scott, as far as I know, does not even read this blog or know of its existence and he is in no way affiliated with this blog, the author or the political opinions expressed here.)
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