Ledbetter Throws First Pitch at Busch Stadium

About 5 1/2 months after he was miraculously kept alive after sustaining gunshot wounds while on duty as a St. Louis Municipal Police Department officer, Colin Ledbetter was honored by the St. Louis Cardinals and American Red Cross.

Ledbetter throws out the first pitch prior to a Cardinals game on June 13 while his partner, Nathan Spiess, who was also injured on Jan. 26 as they attended to apprehend two individuals, looks on. Below, Ledbetter and Spiess are picttured with individuals with the Red Cross. A surprise guest for the evening was Dr. Douglas Schuerer, director of Trauma at BJC Hospital in St. Louis. Schuerer performed the lifesaving surgery on Ledbetter after the SLMPD officer had all of the blood drained from his body and it was believed he would not survive. Ledbetter was given 39 units of blood, about three times more than what’s in a human’s body, and the Red Cross used the first pitch ceremony to help promote the value of blood donations.

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