Isanti County’s injured deputy anxious to return to work

Fund at Cambridge State Bank set up for Chad Meyer

ISANTI COUNTY – It’s been 10 weeks since he was struck by a car while on duty, but Isanti County Sheriff’s Deputy Chad Meyer can’t wait to get back to work.
The only problem is, he’s not sure when that will be.
Meyer’s broken left leg is still healing. Doctors aren’t yet sure what the extent of damage is to his dislocated left shoulder. He went in recently for an MRI to evaluate the nerve damage and will get the results in another week.
LIFE CHANGES IN A SECOND
Saturday night, Dec. 13, 2008 was just another night on the job for the rookie cop. He was one of several assisting at a crash scene at Highway 95 and County Road 48 midway between Cambridge and North Branch.
The scene was nearly cleaned up, and Meyer asked the State Patrol officer in charge if there was anything else he needed. While the State Patrol vehicle was parked along Highway 95 alerting westbound traffic to slow down, the patrolman asked Meyer to remain on County Road 48.
There is a corner on the county road that hides the Highway 95 intersection, noted Meyer, and his car was there to make sure another crash didn’t happen.
He recalls walking back to his squad car and removing his traffic vest. That’s where his memories end.
Others have told him he was struck by a car on Highway 95. He’s not sure how he got back up to the highway. He has also been told that his body flew quite a ways after being struck, but he’s still waiting for the incident report from the state patrol to learn just how far it was.
The next memory Meyer has is of getting to the hospital, and then it’s blank until he woke up in the intensive care unit.
In a way, he’s glad he doesn’t remember being hit. Still, knowing he was, when he sees crashes on television it gives him “the willies.”
Despite that he’s determined to return to work. After all, he’s wanted to be a law enforcement officer since he was a kid. He was on the job just seven months before he was injured. “I love my job,” said Meyer.
The past 10 weeks on the couch have left him with plenty of time to think. He’s already decided to handle traffic stops differently. “I’ll perform traffic stops in certain ways that allow me to be safe, as well as the driver of the vehicle,” noted Meyer.
That includes how he approaches the vehicle, as well as where they park.
What happened is an eye-opener for everyone on his department, noted Meyer. “We just have to learn from it. We can’t change what happened.
“We move on and make sure we’re all safe out there. We make sure we all go home at the end of the day.”
He hopes others will learn from what happened to him.
“I just hope that everybody slows down and watches out for my co-workers out there,” he said.
“Slow down and concentrate on driving. It takes one second, and your life can change.”
SHOULDER, ARM, HEAD INJURED
Meyer’s injuries were severe, albeit not life threatening.
He had several deep cuts on his head and arm. Something impaled his left hand and cut the tendon completely. He received stitches on both sides. Twelve staples were put in his head.
His left leg was fractured in two places, the fibia and the tibia. To aid in the healing, doctors inserted a permanent rod with a screw at both the top and bottom. This rod allowed him to have only a soft cast (essentially a splint with wrapping) rather than the traditional hard cast. He’ll always need a doctor’s note in order to fly because of the metal in his leg.
Since Feb. 9 he has been able to remove the soft cast in order to do range-of-motion exercises such as rolling his ankle around. To mimic walking, Meyer uses a large rubber band while performing a variety of exercises. It doesn’t help him regain muscle as he still can’t put any pressure on the leg, but it does keep the leg looser. He should be able to use the leg more quickly than if it had been in a hard cast, Meyer pointed out.
Doctors are starting to see bone growth in the leg now, as well.
His shoulder is a trickier matter.
While many dislocations aren’t serious, in about 15 percent of the cases there is nerve damage. Right now, Meyer can’t feel anything in a section of his tricep area. “I know it’s there, but I can’t feel the spot,” Meyer noted. The entire back side of his shoulder also remains very tight, and is still painful. He isn’t able to put his arm over the top of his head, or put it around to his back. He can do push-ups, but to hold a gallon of milk out in front of him is impossible.
During his recovery, Meyer has been staying with his parents in Wisconsin. However, at the end of February he had recovered enough to move back into his Isanti apartment.
At this point, because he’s right handed, he could still hold a gun, but he wouldn’t be able to use his left hand to cuff a suspect.
A fund has been set up to raise money for Meyer. It will be used to pay for the various trips to North Memorial Medical Center (which he has been making from his parents’ home in Wausau, Wis. three and one-half hours away), as well as to purchase equipment to replace what was damaged when he was hit by the car.
Mail checks to Cambridge State Bank, c/o Chad Meyer, 127 South Main Street, PO Box 472, Cambridge, MN 55008.
GIVING BACK
Serving as a law enforcement officer is Meyer’s way of giving back.
“We’re not out there to write people a ticket for everything they do,” said Meyer. “We’re out there to keep people safe.”
He wants to be able to prevent what happened to him from happening to others.
“I don’t like to see people hurt,” noted Meyer. “It has a permanent effect on your life. I’ve seen it firsthand.”
He added, “If I can be of service and help people … that’s my goal every day I go to work.”
He recalls one incident last year that he responded to. A teenage girl had landed her car in a stand of trees on County Road 1. He was there as they worked on helping her breathe and when they took her away in an ambulance; he saw her injuries and her pain. He then had the tough task of notifying her parents.
One week later, he saw the girl again, as well as her parents. Meyer noted, “I could just see in their faces how grateful they were that we did what we could to save their child’s life.”
It’s stories such as that one that keep Meyer dedicated to his job.