Veterinarian returns to work after accident

Veterinarian Steve Sallen, founder of the Rosemont Pet Hospital in La Crescenta, has spent nearly three decades caring for animals in the Crescenta-Cañada community. After a recent motorcycle accident, however, it was his turn to be cared for.

On July 11, Sallen and his son Dustin, then 13, set out from the family’s vacation house in Gunnison, Colo. on Honda dirt bikes for a routine day of riding.

Steve’s wife, Donna Sallen, was at their full-time home in Ojai. Their older son, Loren, was making the 4 ½ hour trek from Gunnison to Denver to catch a flight back to California in order to return to work.

Steve’s bike was a recent purchase, and he had yet to adjust the frame to fit his height and build. He was struggling to keep his balance at sharp turns, but successfully ascended and descended a steep trail frequented by dirt bikers.

Back on a flat dirt road, Steve and Dustin were riding smoothly at approximately 35 mph. As Steve rounded a bend, however, he was thrown from his bike.

“The last thing I can remember, I am looking over the handlebars at this flat dirt road and the next thing I knew I was waking up in a ditch in extreme pain with breathing difficulty,” Steve said. “I tried to stand up and it hurt way too much, so I just laid down in the ditch. I never saw my bike again.”

Dustin, riding some distance behind, came upon his father.

“I was just about to catch up with him,” Dustin said. “He had gotten around the corner before [me] so I didn’t really see what happened. The bike was in the middle of the dirt road, and he was on the side in the ditch.”

With his father unable to move, Dustin decided to ride for help.

“I picked the bike up, turned the gas off and put it in the middle of the road so if somebody came by they would see the bike and see him in the ditch,” Dustin said.

He gave he father his Camelbak water pouch, and then headed toward the nearest houses, some 15 miles away. Worried about leaving Steve alone, Dustin twice considered heading back. When he tried to turn his bike around, however, it stalled. Taking that as a sign, he rode on until he was able to located a house with a telephone and call for help.

Steve’s injuries were life-threatening — eight broken ribs, a broken clavicle, a broken shoulder blade and a collapsed lung. Rescuers airlifted him to a hospital in Grand Junction where he spent 14 days in an intensive care unit.

His recovery at their Ojai home, which took the rest of the summer and well into fall, was slow and painstaking, Donna said. Steve tired easily and spent much of his time in bed. He was on oxygen for more than three months, and Donna became an expert at hooking up oxygen tanks.

At Rosemont Animal Hospital, Steve’s colleagues canceled vacations and picked up extra hours to keep the business running. Veterinarian Kymberly Mitchell, who has worked at the clinic since 1993, said Steve has always run a state-of-the-art practice and that his regular clients missed him during his absence. They hired a relief doctor to help keep things running, but business slowed somewhat without Steve.

As he healed, Donna took him by the clinic for visits.

“He could take the focus off of himself and put it back on his patients and clients,” Donna said. “That is the element he is most comfortable in and that is how he lives his life, helping people and helping pets.”

Mitchell described Steve as a daredevil and said she wasn’t surprised that he injured himself doing something like riding a motorcycle. She was surprised, however, at what a strong recovery he made in light of the severity of his injuries.

“I am amazed,” Mitchell said. “If you would have seen him even a month ago, he was so weak. He would be standing trying to talk to me and he would have to lean against the wall.”

On Oct. 30, Steve returned to his full schedule at the clinic.

“For him, going back to work is just him being back, period,” Donna said.

“It is who is he is and it is what he does and it is what he loves. I have never met anyone with more passion for what they do. It is just amazing.”