Downstate Police Officer Seriously Injured in Mid-Michigan Hunting Accident – The Morning Sun

Every rescuer knows that life can change in an instant.

Police officer Nick Kott was off duty and hunting with his dad on their property in Gladwin on the afternoon of November 16 when he slipped and fell from a tree. When he did not return to his cabin at the expected time, his father went to where his son thought he was and found him conscious and motionless on the ground, where he remained for over an hour.

He was taken to Midland Hospital and then airlifted to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, where he is currently in critical condition in the Neuro-ICU.

Kott works for the police in Warren, Michigan’s third-largest city in southwestern Macomb County, and lives in neighboring Oakland County.

According to his wife Holli, who spoke to the media during Thursday’s press conference, Kott suffered a serious neck injury, is on a ventilator and has no feeling from the neck down. Doctors told her it was too early to tell whether she would regain movement in her limbs.

“He was able to say some straight words to me today and for the first time we were able to communicate,” Holli said. “I am asking for prayers, especially for Nick, that he regains the use of his hands and arms so that he can play with his son, who is his best friend.

“I know it’s going to be a very, very, very long road.”

Holli said she and her husband met when they were neighbors and their dogs hit it off and enjoyed playing together. They still live in the same section of Waterford Township in a two-story house that Holli said would need major renovations before her husband could return home.

“My most important thing I want Nick to be able to do,” Holli said through tears, “is tuck his best friend in at night and we have a two-story house.

“If we could just carry Jack upstairs and put our baby boy, our 7-year-old son Jack, here, I need your help and support to do that.”