The teenager woke up unusually early on a summer Sunday morning.

“I knew something was wrong,” said Natalie Chairez-Salazar.

She grabbed her phone to check on her brothers. The Greeley family is extremely close, and the four siblings — Antonio, 28, Yahir, 20, Natalie, 16, and their little brother, Keith, 13 — share their locations to keep tabs on one another. Their mom, Anita Salazar, was out of town at a family reunion in the Mexican town where she had grown up. So Natalie was especially mindful of keeping an eye out for her brothers.

Yahir, a star student athlete on the cusp of his sophomore year at Colorado School of Mines, wasn’t home like he was supposed to be.

It was just after 6:30 a.m. on July 30, 2023. Yahir’s phone was pinging from a strange spot: just off Kersey Road near Keenesburg in northern Colorado. Also known as County Road 49, Kersey is a busy thoroughfare where trucks rumble past oil and gas wells and cattle ranches.

“I had a bad feeling in my heart,” Natalie said.

She tried calling her older brother, whom they call Tonito. He lives nearby with his wife and baby boy, now 1. He didn’t pick up.

“I was already crying,” Natalie said.

She knew Yahir needed her.

Over and over, she dialed Tonito’s number. After at least five tries, she called his wife, who picked up.

“Something’s wrong. We have to go check on Yahir,” Natalie insisted.

Within minutes, Tonito picked up Natalie and they raced to the location where she had first spotted pings from Yahir’s phone. Their hearts sank as they approached and saw flashing lights from multiple emergency vehicles. Natalie’s worst fears had been confirmed. Something was, indeed, terribly wrong.

“There were so many cops. A car had rolled over and over,” Natalie said. “It was shattered. Everything was destroyed. The back was pushed forward. It looked like everybody in the car had passed away.”

The siblings flagged down a police officer who explained that a passenger car had run into the back of a truck driving ahead of it, then veered off the busy road and somersaulted at least twice before landing, crunched up, tires down, in a field. Witnesses found two young men in the car. A third had been ejected and was found 50 feet away. That was Yahir.

Then the officer delivered an update that stunned them.

“Everyone is alive.”

That news gave Natalie a glimmer of hope. It also explained why pings from Yahir’s phone had mysteriously started moving south while the siblings were en route to the accident site.

Paramedics were transporting Yahir to a nearby ER.

Natalie and Tonito followed. When they arrived at the hospital, doctors didn’t know the name of the young man in their care. Once allowed into Yahir’s room, Natalie and Tonito found their brother in dire shape. His left leg was mangled.

“He was bleeding through the bandages. He wasn’t able to talk. They had a foil blanket over him. He was cold and couldn’t stop shivering,” Natalie said.

“It was so hard to see him in a hospital bed. He was the kid who never had to go to the hospital. We all play sports, but he never got hurt.

“The first thing my brother and I did was to hold his hand. We told him we loved him so much. We told him he was going to be OK. We knew that he could hear us.”

Within hours, Yahir would be transferred from Platte Valley Hospital to a much larger facility, UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. There, a team of specialists — including one who had once been a wrestler, like Yahir — would help him cope with devastating injuries and form a plan for what first seemed impossible: returning to school and his college wrestling team.

Straight ‘A,’ first-generation college student and rare two-sport college athlete

The day before the accident, Yahir had moved most of his stuff to the off-campus house where he would be living with four wrestling teammates during his sophomore year at Colorado School of Mines. He was due to report for football practice the following week.

An electrical engineering major, Yahir won a prestigious, full-ride Boettcher Scholarship for academic merit to attend Mines. Yahir and his older brother were the first in their family to attend college. His parents both had immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico as teens, never had the opportunity to finish school themselves and long had worked in Colorado, his mom at a Walmart distribution center, and his dad in construction.

Along with earning an academic scholarship to Mines, Yahir had been recruited to join the college’s wrestling team, and in a rare move for college athletes, became a dual-sport athlete, also joining the Mines football team.

Known for excellence in engineering, Colorado School of Mines also has distinguished itself as a football powerhouse in recent years. The Mines Orediggers became the No. 1 ranked football team in their division and made it to the NCAA Division II National Championship in 2022, the program’s first-ever appearance in the title game. Edged out of a national victory in 2022, the Orediggers hoped for a national title in 2023, and Yahir was eager to help his team compete for a second shot at a championship last fall.

Along with earning perfect grades all four years at Greeley Central High School, Yahir had been a standout linebacker and running back for his high school football team, ran track and made it to the 4A state championships in wrestling, winning runner-up in his weight class during his senior year.

“He’s so driven and passionate about everything he does. He had this amazing competitive spirit on the football field, the track and the wrestling mat,” said Bill Alexander, the advanced manufacturing and engineering teacher at Greeley Central.

“He also brings that same voracious personality to learning. Every day, he wanted to soak up everything in class that he could,” Alexander said. “The other thing is his ability to help other human beings. He has this kindness, this gentleness and generosity with other people.”

‘Guardian angels,’ a makeshift tourniquet and life-saving CPR

As Yahir prepared to move back in with college buddies the next day, he was hanging out at home in Greeley on Saturday night, July 29, when a cousin called. Some family and friends were getting together in Denver. They urged Yahir to join them. He was tired from the move, but reluctantly agreed. Since he was headed back to school, he figured it would be a while before he saw these friends and family members. The gatherings lasted well into Sunday morning.

Two Greeley friends were with Yahir as they drove home from Denver. Yahir was exhausted and before falling asleep in the car, made one crucial mistake. He didn’t put on his seatbelt.

The driver apparently dozed off while heading north on Kersey Road and ran into a truck traveling ahead of the young men. Police believe Yahir was ejected from the rear window as the car started to roll, and it’s possible that part of the car smashed into Yahir’s left leg before cartwheeling away and leaving him battered in a field. He ended up with a deep gash that severed an artery above his left knee.

Buried in dirt and tall grass, Yahir could have bled to death within minutes had skilled strangers not arrived immediately and made critical decisions that saved the student’s life.

Prayers answered after he was hit from behind

Alex Pacheco, 32, works in oil field production, and the father of two young boys was driving home to Greeley after an overnight shift when a car suddenly hit his truck from behind.

“I was shocked,” said Pacheco. “I was going 65. I was on cruise control. I was in a company truck, and they monitor our speeds, so I was going the speed limit. I just felt a hit. I started to lose control and was going into incoming traffic. Then I managed to control the steering wheel and was able to pull over.”

Behind him, Pacheco watched the horrific accident as it happened.

“I just saw the car swerving. They lost control and started flipping,” he said.

The car landed in a field about a quarter mile from large oil and gas tanks that could have sparked a fire had the men wrecked a few seconds later.

Phone service is often poor in that part of Weld County, but Pacheco called 911 and thankfully, his call went straight through to a dispatcher.

Pacheco is religious and happened to be praying both in the moment when he was hit and as he jumped out of his car to help the young men.

“I was talking to God and immediately started praying that these young ones would not leave the world,” he said.

Just then, remarkable people showed up.

“One was a former cop. Another had been in the military. They had training and gave me a hand,” Pacheco said.

The smashed car was smoking and Pacheco and the others worried it was about to catch fire. Pacheco ran to his truck and grabbed a fire extinguisher while the other men pulled two people from the car. Pacheco then realized there might have been a third person in the car.

“I started to walk around and found this young man camouflaged in the grass. I saw him breathing lightly. He had a big cut on his leg. I called one of the guys over, and he immediately started doing CPR. Then the other guy came over, ran to his truck to get a strap and tied it around the young man’s leg to stop the bleeding.

“They helped with everything,” said Pacheco, who to this day, marvels that calm, prepared strangers showed up. It was as if God heard his prayers and sent guardian angels to help Yahir just when he needed them.

Experienced strangers jumped into action to ‘Stop the Bleed’ and save a life

One of those remarkable strangers was Corey Bruce.

Bruce, 52, drives a truck these days after having served as a sheriff’s deputy for more than 13 years in Eagle and Adams counties. He also worked on a search and rescue crew following Hurricane Katrina, which pummeled the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Last summer, Bruce was on his way to work early on a Sunday morning when he came upon the accident scene moments after the crash.

“I was heading north. I came over a little hill and that’s when I noticed the truck of the guy who had gotten hit. He was getting out of his truck. There was still dust in the air, so I pulled over,” Bruce said.

Luckily, he parked on the paved shoulder rather than pulling into the overgrown grass.

“I asked the guy who had been hit if he was OK,” Bruce recalled.

Pacheco was shaken but thankfully, uninjured.

“I ran to the car, which had gone through the fence. I was afraid it was going to catch fire, so we got the guys out,” Bruce recalled.

Minutes later, Pacheco found Yahir in the grass and called Bruce over. Yahir lay hidden just feet from the rear tires of Bruce’s truck.

“If I had pulled in further, I would have run him over,” Bruce said, wincing over the memory.

He spotted the badly injured young man, and thanks to years of experience and training, jumped right into action.

“I checked his respiration. He had shallow, bubbly breaths and hardly had a pulse. We were on with 911, and I said, ‘I’m starting CPR,’” Bruce recalled.

“Within about four or five minutes, he was able to breathe on his own. It got a little better.”

At the same time, the former military officer stepped up to care for Yahir’s leg.

“He was smart,” Bruce said. “He ran to his car, grabbed a cargo strap and used it as a tourniquet. I thought that was genius. He wrapped it above his injury.”

Accident victims can die within minutes if they don’t get help from bystanders like the ones who stopped to help Yahir. So medical experts train everyone — civilians and emergency workers alike — to always jump in and try to “Stop the Bleed,” before more help can arrive. (Learn more about how to save a life.)

That’s exactly what the former military officer did.

“It was phenomenal,” Bruce said. “He was so smart to use the ratchet strap. It was like what you’d use to strap stuff down in the back of a pickup.

“It’s amazing that they’re alive. I didn’t expect them to live at all. He (Yahir) literally has a second chance,” Bruce.

Bruce has two adult children, a son in college, who’s just a year older than Yahir, and a 26-year-old daughter, who’s a teacher.

“It was great to see everyone show up and help,” Bruce said. “I would hope somebody would do that for my kids.

“We’re all so into hurrying. We need to stop and give more hugs, a little more love and little more understanding to each other,” he said.

No blood flow to the leg led to heartbreaking leg amputation

Yahir can’t remember the accident or much of anything from the first days afterwards. That was probably a blessing because he was in bad shape and had to endure tough medical challenges.

Altogether, Yahir ended up having to spend more than six weeks at University of Colorado Hospital and needed eight surgeries, the first of which was a heartbreaker.

Once Yahir arrived in Aurora, a team of doctors spent hours trying to save his leg. But they were forced to do an above-the-knee amputation.

Dr. Melissa Gorman, an expert in orthopedic trauma, was part of Yahir’s care team.

General and vascular surgeons worked for hours to try to restore blood flow to Yahir’s lower leg, Gorman said.“He did not have a pulse in the leg,” she said.

That’s because the main artery in the leg passes behind the knee and the accident had severed it.

“There was no blood flow to the leg below the knee,” Gorman said.

In some cases, doctors can re-establish blood flow, but they weren’t able to do that for Yahir.

“If there’s no blood flow, the leg is not alive, and you can’t save it,” Gorman said.

News of the amputation was a gut punch for Yahir’s siblings, who had followed their brother to Aurora and by then, had reached their mom in Mexico. Devastated, she began an excruciating 24-hour drive home from Durango, Mexico with one of her brothers.

Gorman stepped in following the initial amputation. Her job was to “revise” the amputation to make it as easy as possible for Yahir’s left thigh to support a prosthetic that he would need as soon as all of his wounds healed.

“You make sure the bone is encased in muscle, and you create a good soft tissue envelope that can support a prosthetic,” said Gorman, who is also an associate professor of orthopedics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus.

Along with the initial damage from the accident, Yahir had to deal with painful skin graft surgeries. His injuries were so bad on the left leg, and he had lost so much tissue that doctors had to use skin from his intact right thigh and transfer it to the injured leg.

These surgeries are extremely painful.

On top of necessary surgeries, Yahir had to deal with multiple infections, which Gorman said are typical with an accident like Yahir’s.

“When he was thrown from the car, he was exposed to a lot of bacteria in the soil,” she said.

Considering the severity of the accident, Gorman said it was remarkable that Yahir didn’t suffer other major injuries.

“He had no head injuries and no solid organ injuries. The fact that he survived is a big deal,” she said.

Also stunning was Yahir’s attitude.

As soon as Yahir was well enough to start talking to Gorman, she discovered that she was in the presence of a remarkable young man.

“An amputation is very life altering for anyone. For a 19-year-old college kid, who’s a college athlete, it’s a much bigger deal. It’s really daunting. And, right from the beginning, he was always very positive and upbeat,” Gorman said.

“He’s quite humble and handled the situation with a lot of grace. He has great family support, and that has made a huge difference too,” she said.

While younger people who suffer injuries like Yahir’s typically do better than older patients — both physically and emotionally — Yahir distinguished himself immediately for his resiliency.  He was supposed to be back at school and instead was stuck in a hospital room, then later, at home, recovering.

Still, Yahir settled on a new mantra for his life: “The only thing I have lost is a leg.”

Following the amputation, an audacious new plan: ‘I’m going to compete again.’

In the wake of the accident, Yahir initially assumed that, like his leg, all of his goals and dreams had been crushed.

“Having this happen to me was a shocker, and I thought, ‘Well, I’m probably never going to compete in sports again, and I probably lost my scholarship.’”

Thankfully, his scholarship was safe. Representatives from the Boettcher Foundation visited Yahir in the hospital, offered extensive support and reassured him that his scholarship would be waiting for him as soon as he was well enough to return to school.

His family members were constantly by his side, and his Colorado School of Mines family rallied too.

Yahir’s housemates refused to give away Yahir’s room.

“They saved my spot. They told me, ‘It’s yours, and you’re coming back.’”

Yahir had to take first semester off, but with support from family, friends and his medical team, Yahir formed a plan to return to school right after Christmas.

“I told myself, ‘I’m going to live with my buddies again. Whether I’m on crutches or I have my prosthetic, I’m going back.’”

There were setbacks and hard days, of course. As Yahir fought to recover and regain his strength, he had to watch from afar as his football teammates once again made it to the National Championship. The team had to settle for second place. And Yahir had to settle for watching the game on TV with his brother, Tonito, instead of being at the championship game in Texas.

Still, as he grew stronger, working out nearly every day at his regular gym in Greeley, Yahir grew more and more confident that he could make it back to Mines and to his wrestling team.

He consulted frequently with his wrestling coach, Austin DeVoe, and the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Isaiah Castilleja, and learned that other college wrestlers have competed with one leg. So, Yahir developed an audacious new plan: “I’m going to compete again.”

That’s not all.

“I have high aspirations. A wrestler with one leg has won the national title at the D-1 level. I don’t know if it’s ever been done at the D-2 level. But we’ll work toward that goal,” Yahir said. “That’s the mindset I’m going to have.”

His coaches are going to do everything possible to help Yahir achieve his goals.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but we’ll get him up to speed,” said DeVoe, who recruited Yahir to Mines. “He’s always had an amazing attitude, and long before the injury, he was always thinking of others.”

Doctor who was a wrestler helps his patient get back on the mat

Along with the Mines athletics staffers, one of Yahir’s doctors strongly encouraged his wrestling goals.

It was extraordinarily helpful that Dr. Matthew Iorio had been a wrestler, himself, back in high school.

He knew what it would take for Yahir to compete, and he knew Yahir had the grit to succeed.

“Wrestling is a difficult sport. It’s both a team and a one-on-one sport that requires endurance, strength, and mental toughness,” said Iorio who is an expert in plastic and reconstructive surgery and does extensive research on extremity trauma and limb preservation.

After Yahir arrived at University of Colorado Hospital, Iorio immediately received a call from fellow doctors. That’s because he’s one of the few plastic surgery experts in the U.S. who focuses on the intricacies of nerve and reconstructive surgeries to optimize outcomes for people like Yahir.

“There are a handful of us plastic surgeons in the nation who are clinically and academically focused on limb reconstruction following trauma or chronic injury,” said Iorio who is also a professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Together with colleagues, Iorio did surgeries to improve Yahir’s function and reduce his pain.

Iorio said many people with amputations suffer from chronic pain, much of it phantom pain where their missing limb used to be.

To ease these symptoms, Iorio does a procedure called targeted muscle reinnervation or TMR.

“In addition to rebuilding the soft tissues, we rerouted the nerves of the thigh to give them something to do instead of generating pain,” Iorio said.

He said nerves are a little like a power cord that’s been severed, but can still carry a current. If you cut the nerve, and it’s still alive, the sensory feedback continues to travel through the cord.

People with phantom pain often feel sparking or hot pain.

“Our goal is to fix the nerve where the ‘power cord’ has been damaged, reroute it and plug it into other intact branches. We’re telling the nerve, ‘You’re not on fire. Let’s turn down the feedback on the pain levels.’

“We do these surgeries for a lot of our amputees, and it’s helping a great deal with chronic pain,” Iorio said.

Needing an amputation was a tough outcome for Yahir. But Iorio said it was the best option for his long-term success.

“If there’s any chance of saving a leg, we do it. But if you keep a limb attached, and it’s not functional, it can limit a person. It becomes stiff and painful or deconditioned and can otherwise limit quality of life,” Iorio said.

In Yahir’s case, doctors wanted to optimize their patient’s ability to get back to moving well and living a full, active life.

“We want him running around and back on the wrestling mat,” Iorio said.

While caring for Yahir in the hospital and during subsequent outpatient visits, Iorio marveled at Yahir’s physical recovery and his mental toughness.

“Yahir is an amazing, amazing guy,” Iorio said. “He may require additional revision surgeries as he grows, and over the course of his life, he will need several prosthetics, but he has had an astonishing recovery and I expect years from now he will still be doing amazing things.”

And when it comes to wrestling, Iorio predicts that Yahir will be a “powerhouse on the mat.”

“With his determination and skill he will continue to be a phenomenal wrestler.  I’ve seen other wrestlers with extremity amputations, some of whom are Paralympians and they show that success is a product of mindset and perseverance,” Iorio said.

Yahir will have another advantage when it comes to weight. In wrestling, competitors go up against each other in distinct weight classes.

Before the accident, Yahir used to compete at the 174-pound weight class.

Now, without his leg, he weighs less, but his upper body is as strong as ever, maybe even stronger, because on top of weight lifting, he’s been powering himself on crutches up hills and staircases all over the Colorado School of Mines’ campus in Golden.

When Yahir competes again, he’ll likely wrestle at a lower weight class, perhaps at about 149 pounds.

For several weeks during the fall and winter, Yahir had been dealing with infections and sores on his left thigh, which he unselfconsciously refers to as his “stump.” But his wounds are healing well now, and Iorio recently cleared Yahir to go back to full-contact wrestling, full workouts with his team and getting fitted for his first prosthesis.

“He’s going to do great. He’s already a skilled wrestler. Now we’re going to watch him achieve new goals and dreams. It’s very inspiring,” Iorio said.

A new purpose in life: It’s not about ‘my own ambitions.’ It’s about being ‘a light for other people.’

Yahir returned to the house he shares with his wrestling buddies the day after Christmas and joined his team for practices and workouts the next day. Wrestlers don’t get much of a winter break since the wrestling season stretches from fall until spring.

Once classes started, he received a warm welcome from everyone on campus, including his former football teammates.

“The first time they saw me, their faces lit up. They hugged me and said, ‘Dude, we missed you so much. You’re still part of this team.’ That’s how they’ve treated me. So I’ve made peace with not playing football anymore,” Yahir said.

He is able to drive, but doesn’t have a car. So he catches rides with his housemates to school, has built up calluses on his hands from speeding around campus on crutches and welcomes rides from friends.

“They see me crutching to class or back, and say, ‘Dude. Get in the car. You’re not going to crutch all the way up that hill,’” Yahir said. “Everyone’s been great. I have two sets of teammates who care about me a lot.”

Along with his strong networks of support, Yahir traces his positive attitude to a powerful faith in God, which has grown since his accident.

“I just think God does things for a reason. This is his plan,” Yahir said. “I’m more grateful now for what I’ve got. I think things are happening the way they were supposed to.

“I’m starting to realize that my purpose in life wasn’t to follow my own ambitions. It was to be a light for other people,” Yahir said.

So he’s leaning into the idea of inspiring younger students and embracing leadership opportunities. He’s becoming active with a nonprofit that promotes limb restoration and is now the wrestling team’s representative on the Colorado School of Mines’ Student Athletic Advisory Committee.

Thanks to leaders at the Boettcher Foundation, Yahir is connecting with athletes and leaders at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which is based in Colorado Springs. Wrestling isn’t a Paralympic sport, but running is. So Yahir dreams of someday getting a blade and competing in the Paralympics.

“I never imagined a door like that would open for me. I could be in the Paralympics someday, maybe as a sprinter,” Yahir said. “The sky’s the limit. That’s what I tell myself. I just say, ‘I’m going to do things that nobody has done.’ It’s hard when you lose a leg, but I need to get out of my comfort zone.”

Her brother’s accident is fueling a new dream to become a vascular surgeon

Yahir also is focusing on being a good brother.

Both Natalie and Keith are strong students and excellent athletes, just like Yahir.

Natalie recently made it to state in wrestling, just like Yahir did.

And she, too, has ambitious new plans for her future.

She always planned to be a doctor and hoped to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology because she loves babies.

Now, after witnessing her brother’s accident and the painful aftermath, she plans to become a vascular surgeon so she can save limbs for injured people.

Natalie recalls the moment when her family received the devastating news that doctors had to amputate part of Yahir’s leg.

“They were trying to put in a temporary artery but not enough blood would flow to save his leg. They told us they weren’t able to save his leg. We dropped to the floor. We hugged each other. My whole family was in the waiting room for hours and hours,” Natalie said.

“I want to be the doctor who brings happy news. I want to be in the position to tell families that everything is going to be OK,” she said.

She often yearns to see her brother as he was before the accident.

“I wish I could still see him on his two feet. I wish I could see him play football. I wish we could go on a hike right now. But at end of the day, he’s still here, and that’s all I could have asked for.”

‘Even with one leg, I’m truly blessed’

Bill Alexander, Yahir’s high school teacher, saw his former student soon after he was released from the hospital and knew that everything was going to be OK.

“I’ve never met anyone who handles loss so well,” said Alexander, who has been teaching for 28 years.

Even before the accident, Yahir always looked for silver linings.

“He’d come back from football games after the team got killed, and he’d say, ‘Well, we made some good plays but not in the fourth period. We’re going to have to practice more.’”

Now, after the accident, Alexander is watching in awe as Yahir is applying his trademark positivity to the loss of his leg.

“He told me that it’s given him more perspective and that he’s thankful. He’s meeting with other amputees. He’s just flipped the whole thing around. He’s determined that this accident is going to make him better and stronger,” Alexander said.

And so far, that’s exactly how Yahir is coping with new challenges.

“I always wanted to do something huge in my life,” Yahir said. “I’ve lost a limb, but I’m still out here trying to do my best. Even with one leg, I can still say I’m truly blessed.”