By: Debbie Campbell
Elyria OH – After eight years and 20 surgeries, Katherine Salsbury finally reunited with the Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper that has been credited with saving her life. On August 23, 2011 Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Sgt. Jeff Kaess was patrolling through Elyria when he noticed people gathering in the street.
When he went to see what all the commotion was about, he found a 9-year-old female pedestrian that had been struck by a vehicle. The Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a Facebook post, “Sgt. Kaess realized that the young girl was trapped under the vehicle’s left front tire and was bleeding profusely from her lower right leg.
Sgt. Kaess has prior EMT training and immediately began treating the most serious injury. Sgt. Kaess applied pressure to femoral artery to significantly slow the bleeding until he was relieved by paramedics.”
Over the years, Sgt. Kaess continued to check up on Katherine. Katherine has undergone 19 surgeries with the hope of saving her lower right leg. When Sgt. Kaess learned that Katherine had decided to have her lower right leg amputated to avoid further complications, he obtained permission to come visit her.
The two reunited after Katherine’s 20th surgery on February 5, 2020 at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland. During the visit Sgt. Kaess learned that he was credited with saving Katherine’s life.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol wrote “they explained to him that even the Life Flight crew praised what Sgt. Kaess did and how that most certainly kept her alive by slowing down the blood loss. Katherine is now 16 years old and has a very bright future ahead of her.”
Debbie can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
