Officer recovering
Tractor-trailer pinned sergeant on Feb. 8; he spoke to wife Thursday
An injured Albany County sergeant’s health is continuing to improve.
After nearly three weeks of silence, Sara Iachetta finally heard her husband say to her, “I love you,” on Thursday.
Joseph Iachetta, a sergeant with the Albany County Sheriff ’s Office, has been hospitalized with traumatic injuries since his vehicle was struck and pinned by a Price Chopper tractor-trailer on Feb. 8.
Over the course of the past few weeks, Joseph, 30, has been suffering from a brain hemorrhage, detached retina and ruptured globe on his left eye, facial fractures, cracked cartilage in his voice box, seven fractured ribs, a fractured jaw and more, according to his wife’s posts on his Gofundme page.
But everything started to change on Feb. 18, Sara wrote. Joseph began opening his good eye and looking around, he’s becoming more alert, and he has been off the ventilator since Feb. 20, and hasn’t been using supplemental oxygen since Wednesday.
Joseph’s tracheostomy, which creates an incision in the neck to open an alternative airway, was removed Friday, and he has been doing well since.
Joseph was evaluated by physical and occupational therapists at Albany Medical Center Hospital on Feb. 21, and “he is very strong on the right side and still following commands,” Sara wrote.
On Tuesday, Joseph was transferred to an acute rehabilitation center, where he will be doing three hours of physical, occupational and speech therapy six days a week.
After Joseph told his wife he loved her over Facetime, she wrote, “I can’t put into words how badly I needed to hear him say something, anything, and I got an ‘I love you’! The prayers
and outpour of support are working!” Sara Iachetta has also been facing the devastation of her husband’s accident at the same time she is expecting the couple’s second child.
In less than a month, more than $128,000 has been raised for the Iachetta family on Gofundme. Support for the family has been widespread, with Bethlehem police also sporting decal on their cruisers that reads “Iachetta Strong.”
Iachetta’s patrol vehicle was struck shortly after 6 a.m. by a Price Chopper tractor-trailer at the entrance to the Colonie Plaza near Route 155, police said. Both vehicles were headed east on Central Avenue at the time of the crash, police said.
Police said Iachetta was driving in the right-hand lane when the tractortrailer tried to turn right into the Price Chopper entrance, striking the deputy’s vehicle, which was pinned underneath the truck for more than 30 minutes.
Police said the trucker was not injured and was cooperating with the investigation. Iachetta’s K9 partner, Rice, was not injured in the crash.