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WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (KDVR) — A Wheat Ridge police officer who was seriously hurt when he was stabebd while on duty earlier this year is now back at work.

Allan Fischer has been a patrol officer with the Wheat Ridge Police Department for 20 years. He made a career change to law enforcement in his 40s after being let go from his corporate job. 

“When I wanted to be a cop, I wanted to be a cop on the street,” he said. “The coolest thing about being a cop on the street is, other than doing the job and all that is man, when you leave, you don’t take any work home.”

He said the potential dangers officers face on duty never scared him. 

“That’s what actually makes the job fun is, you’ve got to want to I guess get into the action part of the job, otherwise it’s probably not for you,” Fischer said.

Officer nearly bled to death in stabbing

While responding to a call at an RV park on April 13, Fischer was stabbed multiple times in the face, neck, chest and back.

“It’s something we do routinely. So yeah, I never thought it would be me and I never thought it would be on that call for sure,” Fischer said. 

According to Fischer, he nearly bled to death from his injuries. 

“By far the most serious was in his neck. He was losing a lot of blood very quickly,” fellow officer Tyson Shaul said. 

Shaul used specialized gauze with a coagulant from the medical kit in his patrol vehicle to help slow down the blood loss. 

“Had it not been for the quick clot that he knew how to use, I would have never made it,” Fischer said. “In fact, they thought they lost me at one point in the ambulance, so that’s how close it came.”

Nerve damage lingers

Fischer survived but suffered significant damage to the left side of his face. 

“He stabbed me right behind the ear, all along the neck area, once in my chest, once in my back and severed a bunch of the nerves when he did it, so that’s why I have a little bit of the Bell’s palsy kind of look. And my eye, one of the nerves he cut was the eye,” he said. 

He still has vision in his left eye, but it is obscured because he can not open or close his eyelid on his own. 

Fischer said he is glad to be alive but is also often frustrated by his limitations. For example, he is not allowed to drive and is no longer able to work as a patrol officer. 

“It gets frustrating. I don’t know, there are a lot of things I know I can’t do. I haven’t quite discovered what I can do yet,” he said. “They’re going to find a purpose for me eventually.”

Upon returning to the department, he has been assigned to work in the crime prevention unit alongside Officer Shaul, who helped save his life. Shaul believes they will be able to use what they went through in April to help in their new roles. 

“I think everything an officer experiences in their career helps build them as a police officer, detective or whatever role they’re in. It helps build that so if you can take anything away from instances like this, it’s hopefully something positive that helps teach you and you can relate to somebody else get through it,” Shaul said.