This is first and only hospital in Florida to offer these aero med services.

TAMPA, Fla. — Polk County K-9 Ace is recovering at home tonight after being shot while responding to a call last Thursday. Ace was shot in the chest and the bullet exited through his front left leg, which had to be amputated.

Those life-threatening injuries put Tampa General Hospital’s specialized K-9 officer care and transport program to work. This is first and only hospital in Florida to offer these aero med services.



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“Ace in particular, put himself in harm’s way so that those deputies that were on scene did not get harmed. So, does he deserve less? Absolutely not,” Donny Richardson, aero med flight nurse said.

Weather delayed the flight, but he was eventually airlifted to Bradenton for emergency surgery,” Richardson said.

“It was about a 25-minute flight once they loaded him up and it would’ve been a significantly longer drive,” Richardson said.

In 2021, Governor DeSantis signed a law allowing licensed emergency transport services to fly injured police K-9s to veterinary facilities. In 2023, TGH started its program. Richardson calls K-9 patients fuzzy toddlers because they are similar to pediatric patients.

“We are merely doing treatments and taking care of these guys with ALS medicine that we already use on humans every day,” Richardson said.

The program serves more than 20 counties with one goal: to give K-9s like ace a fighting chance.

“When you’re first sometimes you’re laughed at, but I say all the time this is coming, so you want to be on this wagon or you’ll be chasing it,” Richardson said.