A police officer was hit in the face during an arrest. The blood was obvious.
The broken nose was obvious. But the injury that would eventually end his career was completely missed.
In this episode of The Blue Line Voice — Blood, Sand & Smoke, retired Pueblo, Colorado police officer and Marine Corps veteran Titus Mote tells the full story of the line-of-duty injury that changed everything.
What began as a routine arrest over a low-level warrant turned violent in seconds. Titus was struck hard enough to spin his body, blur his vision, and leave blood running down his face. He was taken to the hospital—but no imaging was performed. The focus stayed on his nose while the damage inside his head went undetected.
Then the system sent him back to work.
Workers’ compensation initially told Titus his nose was not broken. An ENT later determined it was badly broken and required immediate surgery. But even after the operation, the headaches, confusion, memory problems, delayed reactions, light sensitivity, and crushing migraines continued.
Nobody had properly evaluated him for a concussion.
Titus returned to patrol without knowing he was suffering from post-concussion syndrome. On one call, he heard that a suspect had a warrant and knew exactly what he needed to do—but his body would not move. On another, radio information entered his mind and disappeared. Nearly a minute later, his partner had to remind him about the call.
That was the moment Titus realized the stakes were no longer just his career.
He believed his delayed reactions could get his partner, a member of the public, or himself seriously hurt.
Nearly a year after the original injury, his personal doctors finally diagnosed the post-concussion syndrome that had been missed from the beginning. What followed was a battle involving neurologists, vision therapy, vestibular therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, workers’ compensation, department leadership, severe migraines, PTSD, and the realization that he might never return to the job he loved.
Titus explains what it feels like to go from moving a thousand miles an hour as a police officer to suddenly becoming invisible inside your own department. Out of roughly twenty officers he considered close friends, only a few continued checking on him. He went from serving on the street to feeling like nothing more than a name on a roll-call sheet.
But this story does not end with the injury.
Titus is now using what happened to him to push for better concussion awareness among police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and military personnel. He believes mandatory concussion protocols could protect first responders who might otherwise hide their symptoms, delay treatment, and unknowingly place themselves and others in danger.
He also shares the importance of family, trusted support systems, second medical opinions, counseling, and speaking up before an invisible injury destroys a career—or a life.
Watch the full episode to hear how one missed brain injury became a years-long fight against pain, disbelief, workers’ compensation, and the loss of identity that can follow a forced medical retirement.
The system saw the blood. It missed the brain injury.
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Special thanks to @heroesmediagrp #heroesmediagrp #HMG.
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