Soldier tracks down Colorado trooper who saved his life

Editor’s note: The headline has been updated to reflect that the trooper was leaving another call before helping the soldier.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KDVR) — A soldier delivered a special thank you to a Colorado State Patrol trooper he credits with saving his life.

Army Spc. Morgan Jennison said Trooper Jonathan Kay gave him a second chance at life at 24 years old. He knew he had to track him down to say thank you and reached out to FOX31 from his hospital bed.

“People always say — it’s not you I’m worried about on the road, it’s the other drivers,” Jennison said. “I never understood it until now.”

On May 31, a nighttime drive along state Highway 115 in Colorado Springs completely changed Jennison’s life.

“I was going 55 miles an hour and I was midway through the green light,” Jennison said. “You don’t remember much. You don’t have time to think. You don’t have time to react. I lost 6 inches of my tibia, and that apparently exploded into a thousand pieces.”

Trooper in the ‘right place, right time’

Through the unbearable pain on the night of the crash, and the following month in the hospital while undergoing two emergency surgeries, Jennison said he remembered the actions of one person. He asked police who applied a tourniquet on him and learned it was Kay.

“Right place, right time,” Kay said. “I was just leaving another call, and I crested the hill and came up to the intersection. I saw a cloud of smoke.”

Kay and a good Samaritan were able to pry open Jennison’s car door, allowing Kay to cut open his airbags and get to him.

“He had blood squirting out of his leg,” Kay said. “I would say from the time I arrived on scene to the time the tourniquet was on was under 30 seconds. I think I got five or six turns on that tourniquet. And then you could immediately see the bleeding stop, and at that point I knew that he was going to be OK, as far as the bleeding.”

‘A calling to serve’

While unbearably painful, Jennison credits that tourniquet — and the heroic actions of the man applying it — for saving his life.

“I credit that, my parents credit that, every single ICU nurse credits him to my life, and everyone in the ambulance at the same time,” Jennison said. “I have a second chance that I was looking for.”

A thank you humbly received by Kay after 14 years in law enforcement.

“It feels nice,” Kay said. “I don’t do this for the recognition, you know. I got in this business a long time ago. I’ve always had a calling to serve. My father served, my grandfather served, and, you know, I’m grateful that we’ve had this opportunity.”

Kay told FOX31 he has trained often on the tourniquets but this is the second time he’s used one to save someone in the field.

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