San Marcos, TX, police officer Claudia Cormier lost her leg when she was struck by a vehicle Saturday night. Police say the vehicle was driven by a suspected drunk driver. (Photo: San Marcos PD)
A San Marcos, TX, police officer who was critically injured after being hit by a suspected drunken driver on Saturday night lost her leg in the crash but has vowed to return to the force.
Officer Claudia Cormier, a three-year veteran of the department, had been dispatched to a traffic hazard on Interstate 35 around 9:40 p.m. Saturday. She arrived at 9:45 p.m., but moments later, police began receiving a flood of calls that an officer had been hurt.
San Marcos Police Chief Chase Stapp told the Austin American Statesman the impact from the vehicle instantly severed Cormier’s leg. Police officers — including Cormier’s husband, a San Marcos officer also on duty that night — rushed to the scene. A nurse from Seton Medical Center Hays who happened to be passing by stopped to help.
The nurse used T-shirts to fashion makeshift tourniquets to stop the bleeding, an act that likely saved the officer’s life, Stapp said. Other officers who arrived shortly after applied three more tourniquets before emergency medical crews took Cormier to Seton Medical Center Hays, where she underwent surgery.
Stapp said Cormier spoke with him late Monday through video chat and assured him that she would be back.
“She’s got a long road ahead of her,” Stapp said. “This is a devastating injury, but Claudia is a fighter, she is courageous, she’s strong.”
