ST. LOUIS — Officer Colin Ledbetter, one of the officers shot in Ferguson last month, will be released from the hospital Tuesday as his recovery continues to progress.
Officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department's north patrol division will escort him home to Vandalia, Illinois, Tuesday morning, an internal department email said.
The 25-year-old and his partner, 28-year-old Officer Nathan Spiess, were shot in the line of duty on Jan. 26 after pursuing a homicide suspect into Ferguson. Spiess took a bullet to his left leg, which he told 5 On Your Side shattered his femur.
Ledbetter was shot just below his vest. The bullet traveled through his groin and severed his femoral artery, which supplies blood to the lower extremities.
Ledbetter's family and the medical professionals who have helped him called his ongoing recovery a miracle after he arrived at the hospital without a pulse.
“The fact that he had lost that much blood and has had this miraculous recovery is a miracle,” said Dr. Douglas Schuerer, Medical Director for Trauma at Barnes Jewish Hospital and professor of surgery for Washington University.
Ledbetter was moved out of the ICU on Feb. 8 and into an in-patient rehab wing.
“Given how quickly he's gotten better here in just a week or two, I would anticipate continued improvement,” Schuerer said. “Long term, hopefully close to baseline.”