# Lost Limb Officer Inspires Cop Amputee



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*By MURRAY WEISS Criminal Justice Editor *
_Courtesy of New York Post_

February 2, 2006 -- Less than a day after surgeons amputated Officer Eric Hernandez's leg, his father tried to speak about the road ahead for his son with another member of the NYPD football team who survived losing a leg - but that hero was hitting the ski slopes of Vermont.

And the news couldn't have been more uplifting for Efrain Hernandez as he waited outside his son's room yesterday at St. Barnabas Hospital, where he heard from his son's teammates about their former kicker, Thomas Koehler.

Koehler became a world-class triathlete after losing a leg as a result of the NYPD's biggest gun battle.

"I can't believe this," the senior Hernandez said of Koehler's remarkable recovery, according to one police official at the hospital. "I need to talk with him to hear that someone who lost a leg could wind up with such a full life."

The Post had caught up with Koehler Tuesday as he packed for his ski trip.

In December 1994, the sciatic nerve in Koehler's right leg, along with his femoral artery, were severed at the end of a 287-shot battle between cops and a psycho killer.

"I knew my artery was severed and I did not think I was going to make it," Koehler said.

Miraculously, he survived, and he would not allow doctors to remove his paralyzed leg.

Koehler, now 37 and married to a nurse, underwent a dozen operations and returned to the NYPD for another four years.

But after the pain became too much, he went to a facility to examine prosthetics, saw a little boy running on two artificial legs and decided to surrender his.

What would he tell the Hernandez family?

"Losing my leg was the best thing that happened to me," he said. "I wish I lost it in the hospital when I was shot."

Meanwhile yesterday, a fifth suspect sought in Saturday's attack on Hernandez surrendered to police.

Police sources said Jonathan Ayala, 19, is one of the five punks captured on a White Castle security camera videotape pummeling Hernandez before the officer was shot by a fellow cop who was unaware Hernandez, too, was with the NYPD.

A sixth man, Alexander Fontanez, 23, is wanted for questioning.


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