Physical therapists who labored with DPS Trooper Curtis Putz say they’ve by no means observed anyone with such choice to get house to his circle of relatives and get again to paintings.
Trooper Curtis Putz most probably didn’t understand how a lot he ignored the sound of a siren.
He couldn’t lend a hand however smile whilst sitting in a black SUV outdoor of a Baylor Scott & White Rehabilitation facility in Dallas in the course of a motorcade with more than one sirens wailing.
Where he’d come from and the place he was once going made that smile even wider.
On Jan. 31, 2023, North Texas was once iced up.
Putz, who works out of Navarro County, was once on the scene of an accident on Interstate 45 when a car slide into him and ran over him.
He was once trapped beneath it.
It took 90 mins on treacherous roads to get Putz to a hospital.
His accidents have been so critical that his survival was once now not positive.
“Goodness gracious, he was very broken when he came in,” mentioned bodily therapist Bridget Denicola, who labored with him as soon as he after all reached the rehabilitation middle at Baylor Scott & White in Dallas.
But attending to rehab was once an extended and hard adventure.
Putz suffered breaks in his pelvis, hips, ribs, fingers, and legs, in addition to nerve harm in his leg.
He persisted more than one surgical procedures and painful pores and skin grafts in every single place his frame.
Therapy simply added to the ache.
“What an honor to work with someone with such a high pain threshold and who works so hard,” mentioned Denicola.
Putz is now strolling once more — with assistance from a walker.
“I feel good. I feel really good,” he mentioned Friday morning ahead of his discharge.
“Words cannot describe what I feel right now. I’m so happy to be going home and so thankful I’m still here today.”
He thanked Denicola and the personnel who helped him recuperate, the surgeons who stored his existence, the soldiers who watched over his circle of relatives for 11 weeks, and his spouse and his religion — which he mentioned were given him thru.
Outside the rehabilitation middle, regulation enforcement covered up with Baylor Scott & White workers to applaud and cheer as Putz, his spouse, and 3 youngsters walked to the ready SUV.
“It has been 81 days since the crash that took your voice off our airwaves on January 31, 2023,” mentioned a dispatcher’s voice over the radio. “Congratulations on going home to finish your recovery with your beautiful family.”
Putz’s spouse, Tosha, hugged the rehab personnel ahead of entering the motorcade.
Then the sirens began and the circle of relatives started the trek house, surrounded through the similar soldiers who have been through their facet because the accident took place.
The circle of relatives already has plans: church on Sunday and going fishing in combination once Putz is as much as it.
His final purpose is to go back to paintings.