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Wounded Marine has 4th Amputation
CALEDONIA — Nearly two weeks after being critically wounded in Afghanistan, a Boone County Marine is continuing to fight for his life.
Cpl. John Peck, 24, a former Rockford Jefferson High School and Antioch High School student, lost both of his legs and an arm when an improvised explosive device detonated on May 23.
In an article published in Sunday’s Rockford Register Star, it was reported that Peck’s U.S.-bound flight was diverted May 29 from Germany to Canada after his vital signs deteriorated.
Sunday, the injured Marine arrived at Maryland’s Bethesda Naval Hospital, in critical but stable condition, where his wife, Kristen; mother, Lisa Krutyholowa; and grandfather, Richard Piper, are at his side.
John Peck with his grandparents, Deb and Richard Piper, in 2004
Still in a coma
Peck’s grandmother, Deb Piper of Caledonia, is still in Illinois, but remains in daily contact with the three. She said her grandson’s temperature spiked to 105 degrees Friday, and he is still in a drug-induced coma.
“They have got so many machines on him, they’re afraid if they allow him to wake up he would fight the equipment.”
Richard Piper also shared in an e-mail Friday to the Rockford Register Star that his grandson is now a quadruple amputee.
He wrote: “Since John arrived here on Sunday he has been in surgery every day with the exception of Wednesday. The doctors have had to make a lot of decisions if rest or surgery would best serve him. Each time he went into surgery he has had numerous doctors and staff assisting him and most of the surgeries have lasted upward of four hours, a real strain on John’s body. We know that many times he has had six or more doctors attending to him. Yesterday, the doctors had another difficult decision to make. They had to remove his left hand.
“John has now lost both legs, one at the hip, the other midthigh, both hands and part of each arm, one slightly above the elbow and the other midway down his lower arm. … We hope and pray that it will stop at these points, but it depends on how the tissue responds and heals. The left leg has been a problem for the doctors, and they have had to continually amputate slightly more to find healthy tissue. As has been said many times by John’s doctors, ‘His life is hanging by a thread.’ But John does continue to fight for his life. God bless him.”
Prayer message posted
Deb Piper is an employee at Orthopedic Rehab Specialists in Byron. The medical facility’s main office in Rockford recently posted a message on its Perryville Road marquee expressing the sentiments of all in the Rock River Valley: “Sending Prayers to Cpl. John Peck and his family.”
Peggy Kruger, the ORS business manager in Rockford, said it was co-owner David Black’s idea to post the message.
“We wish there was more we could do,” she said. “We’re a tight-knit group of 40 people working in four offices in Rockford, Byron, Dixon and Belvidere, and we’re just trying to be supportive and bring awareness to the area. We’re all sitting here happy and healthy, but there are people over there giving their lives for us, and they are so young.”
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One Response for “Wounded Marine has 4th Amputation”
We all at the Douglas Bader Foundation are thinking of you and wishing you well, John.
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