Maryland: Bel Air police officer back on the street after being hit by car in 2013
On Nov. 20, 2013, Officer First Class Kayhla Hendren was directing traffic for the Bel Air Police Department during a minor fire call at Williams Street and Broadway when she was suddenly run over by a black Volkswagen Passat. "The most vivid memory I had was realizing I was under the vehicle," Hendren recalled about that day. "I was thinking, 'If the car doesn't hit my head, it will be OK.'"
Flown by helicopter to Shock Trauma, the officer suffered a concussion with speech and vision problems for two months, as well as a shattered right ankle, partly-torn PCL knee ligament and a torn elbow tendon, Bel Air Police Chief Charles Moore said. Doctors said she would never be an active-duty officer again, but the determined Hendren beat the odds, celebrating her return to work Thursday as a fully re-certified officer.
"A lot of people who were caring for her were skeptics that she would ever be able to return to active duty," Moore said in an interview Tuesday, pointing out that many officers with less serious injuries would not be returning to active duty. In the accident, Hendren had been helping clear the way for fire trucks as they responded to a small kitchen fire in an apartment in the 100 block of Nichols Street, according to an Aegis article at the time.The fire was minor – a malfunctioning stove, according to the original report. "The car actually ran over her, impacting the right side of her body," and it nearly ran over her head, Moore explained in a statement Tuesday. "The impact was so hard that it broke her issued firearm, making it permanently non-functional." Hendren had surgery that day and three more over the years, as well as "lots and lots and lots" of physical therapy, she said.
Hendren, 34, joined the police department in 1997 after working as an officer in Baltimore City for three years. She had been on restricted duty since the accident, doing administrative tasks, Moore said.
At the time of the accident, her son was seven months old and her daughter was 3 years old. Despite everyone's concern about her, "I was going to prove them wrong," Hendren said. "I have always wanted to do this job, since I was a kid, and I wasn't going to let one incident change my life, let one person's mistake alter my life."
Hendren did have second thoughts in December 2014, when her foot regressed to the point that she needed a cane and two screws in it fell out, which she called "disheartening, as you can imagine."
But Hendren was determined to make a comeback, and, on May 15, she ran her first quarter of a mile. That was when she knew she could make it. She was finally re-certified as an officer Aug. 15.
"I was just happy that I finally did it," she said. "I showed my children to never give up, to always fight for what you want."
One of her first assignments was directing traffic on Baltimore Pike, which did not faze Hendren one bit, although "you are always on guard; you are watching out for vehicles."
Moore said he is trying to get her recognized at Ripken Stadium as a "hometown hero."
"I give her kudos for being able to come back," Moore said. "She has endured; she stuck to it. She wanted to be an officer."
In his statement, he wrote that she "has fully recovered after exhibiting extraordinary and stubborn resolve in achieving her goal of returning to duty."
A post on the department's Facebook page celebrating Hendren's achievement said: "Her dedication and commitment to her chosen career and the people that she serves is an example for all."
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