MELISSA HARRIS, SUN REPORTER
Copyright 2006 The Baltimore Sun Company
Pieter Lucas, the 21-year-old Howard County auxiliary police officer who lost his lower left leg after being struck by a Chevrolet Blazer on Thanksgiving Eve, is recovering after surgery last week in which doctors took a piece of his hip bone and inserted it in his right leg.
“I still have a brace, but I’m able to bend my knee a little bit now,” said Lucas, who is living at his family’s Glenwood home. “I have gotten out of the house a few times.”
Lucas was hit at U.S. 40 and Pebble Beach Drive while getting out of his police vehicle to direct traffic at the scene of another crash. In preparation for Lucas’ return home, volunteer firefighters and his parents moved a hospital bed, television, digital video disc player and video game set into the family’s dining room.
Lucas, a River Hill High School graduate, has re-enrolled from home in four classes at the University of Maryland, College Park and recently posed for a membership photo at the West Friendship Volunteer Fire Department, where he is an emergency medical services lieutenant.
Howard County carries a limited “reimbursement” insurance policy on its auxiliary officers, meaning someone else has to pay the medical bills first. Firefighters and the Police Department’s foundation are raising money to help cover Lucas’ additional expenses.