FRANKFORT, Ky. — A suspected member of a drug cartel opened fire on Detective Darrell Hyche three years ago, upending his career with the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) and nearly ending his life.

His wife, Cathy, was teaching in class that day when two officers came to get her.

“They told me that he had been shot twice in the head, which we all know what that usually means,” Cathy Hyche said. “So we were, all three of us, were pretty scared, thinking we were trying to get to the hospital before he died.”

Darrell survived, but recovery was tough.

He tried going back to work a year later, and that only lasted about six weeks.

“It was horrendous. He was sick everyday. He had his terrible, traumatic migraines every day and was in bed every day,” Cathy said. “So the doctor kind of explained it that sometimes you need to go back to work to realize you can’t work.”

To this day, Darrell is dealing with the injuries he suffered on Feb. 1, 2018, and the only realistic option for him is to take a medical retirement, one that would pay him just 25% of his average monthly salary.

“It’s disgusting,” Cathy said. “It’s insulting to police officers who give the ultimate service every day, and it’s an extremely dangerous job.”

Adding even more insult to injury, due to reforms passed in 2018, if Darrell died that night, his family would receive 75% of his salary.

Cathy is part of a small group of families facing this issue.  

“How do you tell them that they’re not worth as much alive as they are dead?” Cathy said. “Their families would have been taken care of had they been mortally wounded.”

Cathy started working with lawmakers on a proposal to raise medical retirement benefits from 25% to 75%.

This year's effort, Senate Bill 169, would also provide medical retirees with health insurance.

Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Taylor Mill) says the measure is all about fairness.

“When somebody has an incident when acting on behalf of their city, their county, or the Commonwealth, that ultimately leaves them disabled to such a point that they simply cannot work again, it’s only fundamentally fair that we ensure that person is taken care of financially for the balance of their life and that’s what this is about," he said.

Senate Bill 169 passed unanimously in the Senate last week and now sits in the House. It hasn't been scheduled for a House committee vote yet, which could happen Thursday. The earliest it could receive a vote on the House floor is Friday.

The state’s research into a similar proposal last year shows only 12 people qualified for medical retirement over the last decade, a cost McDaniel says he’s OK with.

Cathy says the medical retirement won’t solve everything for her family, but it’ll help.

“I’m a huge advocate of first responders, so I don’t know if any amount would ever be enough for somebody who does what they do, but yes, it’s a livable amount,” she said. “It’s certainly better than 25%.”

Last year's bill, House Bill 412, won approval in a House committee last year, but that’s as far as it went.