It's a service to the community, it's.
Putting myself out there for the
community and then for the country,
even in the wake of a life
altering on the job accident,
I think it's the type of job
that I feel I'm suited for.
State Trooper Michael Nunez can't
imagine doing anything else. I remember
hearing what was going on in the
radio as far as the high speed chase.
It's a June evening in 2020.
I'm getting in position to set up the spikes.
Nunez is determined to stop a driver
involved in a high speed chase.
It was going pretty fast
in what seems like a flash.
The car speeding at 120 mph. Hits Madness
all we have Cooper down trooper down,
down for I mean a fraction
of a second I thought to myself
it's like Oh no this is really bad
and kind of feeling this kind of
overwhelming kind of sense of fear.
His years of training kick in and
he forces himself to remain calm,
but I never really really got
to thinking too much about all.
Am I gonna die? I just knew I had to
keep kind of fighting mentally fighting
after what feels like an
eternity and ambulance rushes.
To Maine General Medical Center in Augusta,
his troop commander isn't far behind
and I walked right in to the trauma room
and then I see our boots on the ground.
I see parts of his uniform cut off.
I see him there laying on the stretcher.
His bulletproof vest was cut in half.
The car had smashed directly
into Nunez's right leg.
I really push the surgeons
that I am passionate about,
running and passionate about being active.
And that I really want to keep the
leg and they wanted to do everything
they could to to help me out.
He's a physical guy. He needs this.
He needs us to come out in the most
positive way and for me not having
a lot of experience with amputees,
he can't lose that leg.
That's not an option.
3 surgeries and more than 12 hours later
we made the decision to amputate my leg,
a decision that could forever change
his path because there are no
main state troopers with one leg,
no amputees doing his job.
I think I've always known
that I'm resilient.
But it's definitely put it in
the forefront of my mind, it's.
Very helpful to be that way.
When you're faced with
this kind of adversity.
2 years of pushing, grinding and
learning to live with a prosthetic leg.
Glass of some sort, almost undetectable
under his uniform. He's going
to be our first amputee.
That's pretty important
to stay on the job.
Nunez has had to pass every
test that would typically come
along for a state trooper.
No accommodations.
The road to recovery has
been paved with pain.
There's been many, many
times where the pain's been.
Overwhelming Nunez's desire
to get back to the job and the sports
he loves like running and hiking.
Have been a driving force
pushing the limits and and
doing as much as I can.
And really when I said getting
back to what I wanted to do,
really getting back there and
some capacity thinking of going
beyond what I was doing before
his first few runs were hard.
I was very demoralizing just
because of how quickly I fatigued
and how much effort it took,
but with each determined stride,
he's made it a little further.
Last summer he hiked
Katahdin for the first
time with his new leg,
so that was a huge thing for me.
What did it feel like
when you get to the top?
Ohh man, I I wish I could tell folks that it
was like this whole like emotional thing,
but the kind of unfortunately the first
thing I kind of started thinking is
well can I do it faster? What started
as a good way to record his
progress has now turned into a
way to inspire other amputees.
I probably never used to take
photos of myself in places and
I think that's kind of something
that started happening a lot.
Is kind of just, it's just kind
of like a joy that here I am.
His recovery has been buoyed by his family,
especially his mom, his brothers in
blue and the community. The community
started to know it came out that OK.
This is Mike. This is the guy that
stood in front of that speeding car
to stop a chase that needed to be
done before somebody get killed.
I'm unbelievably grateful for everybody
that's looked after me and all the
people that continue to look after me
as I continue on this journey. The best
views come after the hardest climbs.
And officer Michael Nunez is only
looking forward. Do you ever
think about the man that hit
you? Not too much. A big thing for
me is more time I dwell on that.
The more time I'm not thinking about
my own life and how to move forward.