FL Amputee Firefighter's Story of Triumph over Adversity

Aug. 31, 2017
In a Firehouse.com exclusive, Hillsborough County firefighter Patti Valero tells her inspiring story.

There was never a doubt in Patti Valero's mind that she could overcome the loss of her leg and get back on the job.

After all, the retiring Hillsborough County firefighter had grown accustomed to facing adversity throughout not only her career but her personal life as well.

"I never cried," Valero said in a recent interview with Firehouse.com about those first moments in the hospital when she realized her left leg was gone. "Not one time. I was just focused on coming back to work."

Valero's leg was amputated below the knee following a motorcycle accident in October 2009, and the National Fire Protection Association's standards at the time stated that a firefighter who went through any kind of amputation couldn't effectively go back to work.

"Fortuitously, while I was in the hospital and just days after my accident, they changed the rules and said if you had a below-the-knee amputation that you could come back."

It took a little less than a year for her to make it all the way back, and she credits the progressive attitude of her department for allowing her to try despite being what she termed "probably a workers comp nightmare."

The biggest hurdle she pointed to in getting back to fighting fires was balance. Learning to trust her new leg and that it could bear all the weight of the full personal protective envelope (PPE) and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) took time, and she credits taking up golf as a key factor in helping her stop putting more weight on her right leg -- a natural instinct for amputees early in their recovery.

Some of the specifics of her comeback involved continuous practice with a zippered left boot she could quickly get into since her prosthesis can't fully articulate. To put it simply, she can't point her left toe the way anyone would when pulling on a boot. She also began a daily exercise regimen developed with the help of her current husband that strengthened her right leg, making it much easier for her to climb into the engine she continued to drive.

After re-taking all her agility tests and passing them on the first attempt, her colleagues saw her perfectly execute an emergency bailout during training and erupted in thunderous applause.

"That was awesome," she said with noticeable pride.

Amazingly, the triumph of her comeback from such a traumatic injury is only a small part of Patti Valero's story.

Hers is also a tale of joining the fire service at a time when women weren't taken seriously as firefighters, and at an age considered too old for a rookie. It involves a single mother picking up everything and moving with her three young children so she could take her first career position. It also features the sudden death of a husband and surviving a life-threatening cancer diagnosis through the generous love of a sibling.

And through all of it there was never a complaint, never a doubt and never any request that anyone go easy on her.

"In my whole career, I've never asked for a favor or an exception. Ever. This is a serious business we're in. You need to be there 100 percent and I take that very seriously."

Valero, whose official retirement date comes a day after she turns 55 on Sept. 3, credits her work ethic and dedication to her upbringing. The youngest of four children, she was raised by an Irish mother she called "tough as nails" due to the fact that her military father was part of the Special Forces and constantly away from home.

"I got my toughness from my mom and my focus from my dad," she said.

After moving to Orlando in the late 1980s, Valero spent time working in various roles at a hospital -- admitting, labor and delivery, medical assistant -- but something was missing and she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Nothing felt right," she said of her medical career in those days. "Whatever department I worked in just didn't feel right."

It was when she was moved into an emergency room role that a single moment changed everything. A group of firefighters in full bunker gear had brought in a patient and were still performing CPR when something clicked.

"Something inside me just said, 'That's it! That's what I want to do right there.'"

A short time later, she signed up for the fire academy at Seminole Community College in Sanford. She was the oldest person in her class at age 30 and was told early on that she probably wouldn't be able to get a job in the fire service -- a lot of it likely due to the combination of her age and gender.

"I love a challenge, and that's what the fire department is. Every shift, every call is a challenge. I love it."

She went on to volunteer for the Lake Mary Fire Department and had a commander who made it possible for her to train alongside career firefighters on a weekly basis. When a classmate from the academy told her in 1993 that the Hillsborough County Fire Department near Tampa was hiring, she applied and then borrowed a hospital coworker's car to make the drive up for the interview.

The department was interested in hiring more women at the time -- only about 10 of its members were women back then -- but Valero was told in very simple terms that none of that mattered if she couldn't pass the agility tests. And true to her nature, she "blew right through it" and got the job.

So she picked up and moved to the Tampa area with her three children: two daughters who were 12 and five and a six-year-old son.

"You were knee-deep with guys," she said of the climate when she joined the department. "I knew that going into the game. I had to focus on the long haul. I got very lucky. I was with some very strong captains who were very professional, and a lot of them had never worked with a woman before.

"They didn't allow anyone to disrespect me on a call, even though some tried. You had to prove yourself. I knew that. And I did."

As one of the few women in her profession, Valero was adamant about being taken seriously, which meant refusing to even consider dating anyone else on the job and maintaining a professional demeanor at all times.

"I was that tough person at work and the other person at home, but that's what I felt I had to do at the time. And it worked."

After several years of proving herself to colleagues and superiors, she was voted by her peers as the department's firefighter of the year in 1997 -- the first and only woman to receive the honor. The satisfaction, however, would be short-lived.

"I won that award and a week later I found out I had cancer."

Valero was given a year to live, but thanks to a bone marrow transplant provided by one of her sisters and a lot of hard work, she made it back on the job a year later after re-taking all her tests again -- a process she jokingly called "just a little bump in the road."

After taking some time to attend paramedic school, she was assigned in 2003 to one of Hillsborough's first medical engines after the county merged fire and EMS services. It was another fleeting success, though, because a short time after that, tragedy again struck when her second husband died suddenly.

Valero was quick to credit her colleagues for their support and camaraderie through such a difficult time.

"When it comes down to it, they really are there for you. They can say what they want at the station -- all that bravado -- but when it comes down to your family and when something really bad happens, they were there."

After taking a promotion to Rescue Lieutenant following her husband's death, Valero then set her mind to becoming a driver/engineer and wound up passing those tests, too.

Those early years might be enough to fill an inspirational biography, but life wasn't finished dealing Patti Valero a hand to overcome.

On Oct. 21, 2009, she was broadsided while riding her motorcycle and thrown from the vehicle. She stopped breathing and was revived at the scene, eventually losing her left leg below the knee and spending a significant amount of time on life support.

"I don't have any recollection of that night or even the three months prior. I lost all of that."

After being humored by colleagues about her desire to come back, she remained steadfast and tackled the arduous tasks of learning to walk again, training and then finally re-taking the agility tests with a singular focus of fighting fires again. There was never a doubt in her mind that she could do it.

"The moment that was the most frightening was believing that my fellow firefighters wouldn't understand this new me. But then they figured that I wasn't going to give up."

After again and again proving she was physically ready to come back on what she calls her "awesome" titanium leg, she was finally assigned to her old seat on Engine 4 and working calls alongside her brothers and sisters.

"One of my first shifts back was a three-alarm fire and, yeah, I got a cold chill when the captain said, 'Hey you gotta bunker out, we gotta fight fire.' That was my do-or-die moment. And of course everyone is watching you. But I did it. Then I did it again. And then again. After that it was not an issue anymore with the guys."

Valero says she's never been one to toot her own horn, but given all she's been through and now faced with that moment every firefighter has when they hang up their turnout jacket for the last time, she felt it was important to let any other firefighters who suffer a career-threatening injury know that it doesn't have to be the end.

Not by a long shot.

"My main reason for getting this out there and for coming back is that I do care about the people I work with, and I wanted to show them that even if the worst thing happens to you, you can make it back. You can go home again."

As far as what she plans to do with all her free time upon retirement besides golfing, she says the answers will come.

"I'll figure it out," she laughed. "Just like everything else in my life. I'll figure it out."

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