{"id":74195,"date":"2024-02-22T11:46:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T18:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=74195"},"modified":"2025-12-31T08:06:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:06:35","slug":"colorado-school-of-mines-student-returns-to-wrestling-after-leg-amputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/colorado-school-of-mines-student-returns-to-wrestling-after-leg-amputation\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado School of Mines student returns to wrestling team after car accident forced devastating leg amputation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Yahir
Yahir Chairez-Salazar tests his strength during a weightlifting workout at Colorado School of Mines. Yahir has returned to wrestling and a rigorous engineering program after a car accident last year forced a devastating leg amputation. Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The teenager woke up unusually early on a summer Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew something was wrong,\u201d said Natalie Chairez-Salazar.<\/p>\n

She grabbed her phone to check on her brothers. The Greeley family is extremely close, and the four siblings \u2014 Antonio, 28, Yahir, 20, Natalie, 16, and their little brother, Keith, 13 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Yahir, a star student athlete on the cusp of his sophomore year at Colorado School of Mines, wasn\u2019t home like he was supposed to be.<\/p>\n

It was just after 6:30 a.m. on July 30, 2023. Yahir\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a bad feeling in my heart,\u201d Natalie said.<\/p>\n

She tried calling her older brother, whom they call Tonito. He lives nearby with his wife and baby boy, now 1. He didn\u2019t pick up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was already crying,\u201d Natalie said.<\/p>\n

She knew Yahir needed her.
\n

\n

Read Yahir’s story in Spanish<\/a><\/strong>
\nLeer sobre Yahir en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/div>\n

Over and over, she dialed Tonito\u2019s number. After at least five tries, she called his wife, who picked up.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething\u2019s wrong. We have to go check on Yahir,\u201d Natalie insisted.<\/p>\n

Within minutes, Tonito picked up Natalie and they raced to the location where she had first spotted pings from Yahir\u2019s phone. Their hearts sank as they approached and saw flashing lights from multiple emergency vehicles. Natalie\u2019s worst fears had been confirmed. Something was, indeed, terribly wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many cops. A car had rolled over and over,\u201d Natalie said. \u201cIt was shattered. Everything was destroyed. The back was pushed forward. It looked like everybody in the car had passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Then the officer delivered an update that stunned them.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yahir
Yahir Chairez-Salazar, center, with his sister, Natalie, left, his mom, Anita Salazar, right, and his little brother, Keith. Yahir’s family has been a huge support to him. His mom, Natalie and Keith helped Yahir move back to the off-campus house where he’s living with wrestling teammates now that he has returned to Colorado School of Mines. Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That news gave Natalie a glimmer of hope. It also explained why pings from Yahir\u2019s phone had mysteriously started moving south while the siblings were en route to the accident site.<\/p>\n

Paramedics were transporting Yahir to a nearby ER.<\/p>\n

Natalie and Tonito followed. When they arrived at the hospital, doctors didn\u2019t know the name of the young man in their care. Once allowed into Yahir\u2019s room, Natalie and Tonito found their brother in dire shape. His left leg was mangled.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was bleeding through the bandages. He wasn\u2019t able to talk. They had a foil blanket over him. He was cold and couldn\u2019t stop shivering,\u201d Natalie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within hours, Yahir would be transferred from Platte Valley Hospital to a much larger facility, UCHealth University of Colorado<\/a> Hospital. There, a team of specialists \u2014 including one who had once been a wrestler, like Yahir \u2014 would help him cope with devastating injuries and form a plan for what first seemed impossible: returning to school and his college wrestling team.<\/p>\n