As an amputee, I steadfastly scour and tediously study the latest research finds and/or miracles emanating from the world of prostheses, its engineering marvels, and scientific advancements for those who seek to regain the organic privileges obsoleted by limb loss. Among my search, one recent instance stood out and gave me a sense of euphoria pertaining to one of our nation’s wounded warriors. I was astounded and glad to learn of the experience U.S. Marine Sergeant John Peck endured when surgeons attached two limbs received via an organ donation program.
Sgt. Peck sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) early in his military career. The culprit was a bomb blast while serving in Iraq in August 2007. Per a Washington Post report, “He was manning a machine gun atop an armored truck when the truck hit an IED. The blast threw him into the air, and when he came down he struck his head on the machine gun.” That would seem to mark the beginning of the end.
Although he lost much of his memory, his die-hard convictions were far more than mere simmering embers. What does Peck do? He reenlists! After rehabilitating, he got back in the saddle in April 2009, rejoining his unit in Afghanistan.
It was in Afghanistan, in 2010, when Sgt. Peck was sweeping for buried IEDs. He didn’t find one with his metal detector. He located one when, as John explained, his foot “stepped on 30 pounds of homemade explosives” resulting in immediate loss of both legs and, initially, one arm. His second arm was eventually amputated due to what is known as a “de-gloving incident”; essentially, the unsalvageable arm was “hanging there by a thread” and needed removal. That left John with neither upper nor lower extremities. Wheelchair-bound without limbs, John’s mobility required someone to push him and aid his dislodging from the wheeled device and onto bed, and vice-versa.
As WaPo‘s Michael E. Ruane reported, “[Peck] was about to join former Army Sgt. Brendan Marrocco, who is thought to be the only other military quadruple amputee to get a double arm transplant. Marrocco was injured in Iraq in 2009, and had his transplants at Johns Hopkins in 2012.”
Quadruple amputee are the qualifiers here; sadly, there are quite a number of servicemembers’ amputations. But via modernized medicine and scientific breakthroughs we have a growing list of transplantation successes for our military members.
Researching unearthed arm transplantations for hundreds of soldiers whose war-time experiences wound up as catastrophic events whereby one or more limbs were lost to explosive device blasts. According to a January 2013 Associated Press report, “The military is sponsoring operations like these to help wounded troops. About 300 have lost arms or hands in the wars.” That was published in 2013 and covered only surgical re-attachments of upper extremities. (As of yet, no leg transplants are on record; I wait while ambulating with a prosthetic.)
Nevertheless, after being placed on an organ donor waiting list, Sgt. Peck got the good news: an “anonymous” donor’s limbs were harvested. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, John underwent regenerative surgery in 2016, having two organic arms replace his formerly-used prosthetic limbs. As the Washington Post pointed out, “It was a complex procedure that required good timing, surgeons at two medical centers, the help of the New England Organ Bank, and a large plastic cooler to transport the donor’s limbs.”
At a post-recovery press conference, Sgt. Peck extended his recognition of a second chance and expressed gratitude to the family of the donor whom he will never meet: “Your loved one’s death will not be for nothing. Every day that I look down at our new arms, I will drive on…and I will never give up. I will remember his selflessness and his gift until the day I die.” Notice he used the words “our new arms.” That reference right there tells you much about a man’s character and verve for life, taking nothing for granted.
According to Lohud.com, Sgt. Peck is “continuing to receive physical therapy at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near his home but has made substantial progress following a waiting period for his nerves to reintegrate. He’s able to shower, dress, cook and drive.” These are “things I thought I would never do,” said Sgt. Peck.
And as of June 30, 2018, Peck could pitch a baseball from the mound. He was invited to Military Appreciation Night at Boulder’s stadium, delivering the ceremonial first pitch to a Rockland Boulder’s baseball catcher.
This phenomenal medical possibility is undoubtedly beneficial for recipients of limbs. Where do such organic parts come from? Organ donation programs chronicle banks of organs and tissues dedicated by others (donors) via their will or driver license declarations, among some other routes. Albeit a bit morbid, they are called “dead donors” who, at time of death, have their body parts harvested and vitally maintained for registered recipients. Soldiers are paramount recipients; conversely, depending on circumstances, some of those soldiers are donors as well.
Wonder of it All
A noted plastic surgeon who specializes in limb transplantation, Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee has performed several such surgeries on amputee soldiers at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Lee states the “maximum speed is an inch a month for nerve regeneration. We’re easily looking at a couple of years” before being able to measure complete success and adequate usability regarding limb transplants.
Quality of life—restoration thereof—is the ultimate goal of limb transplantation.
With funds provided by the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM), a consortium of top-rated hospitals and world renowned university research facilities formed and funded by the federal government since 2008, these surgical anomalies are endeavored. AFIRM maintains “a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary network working to develop advanced treatment options for our severely wounded servicemen and women. The AFIRM is managed and funded through the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC); with additional funding from the US Navy, Office of Naval Research; the US Air Force, Office of the Surgeon General; the National Institutes of Health; the Veterans Administration; the Department of Defense, Health Affairs and local public and private matching funding,” according to its site. All of that does not come without tax dollar expenses, so all of us have a hand in the miracles being performed.
Beyond limb transplants, various surgeons belonging to the AFIRM network have considered face transplants as well. In France, doctors there performed the first face transplant in 2005. That patient, Isabelle Dinoire, passed away of a “long illness” in April 2016. Per CNN, “French media reported she succumbed to complications from her most recent operation.” Ms. Dinoire’s face transplant surgery was made possible by facial tissue given by a “brain-dead donor.” Ms. Dinoire’s example equates to a moderate success, lending hope to an ostensibly untenable medical phenomenon.
Through the years, we’ve seen images of malformed and disfigured faces sustained by some of our soldiers in the course of battle. You can bet they’re closely watching these medical strides.
Sgt. Peck’s lead surgeon, Dr. Simon G. Talbot, explained some of the minutia involved in such delicate matters regarding organ resection: Under a microscope, suture strands are thin, like human hair. Surgically fusing the physiological details of nerve tissue and skeins of arterial tentacles must be not only time-consuming but unaccommodating to getting it just right for any chance of rehabilitative success. What’s that saying about the steadiness of a surgeon’s hands?
As mentioned earlier, my amputation was a lesson in disguise of sorts. Although I’ve never heard of “phantom pain” I quickly learned the reality of the brain’s incredible capacity to send signals to a limb no longer in existence (detached). Nerve-endings under the scar tissue still function and signal as though the leg below the knee is in full concert with its upper portion; it is not. Hence, electric-like radiating pains come and go as they please. Try to wrap your head around that; I still grapple with the notion. As my oncological surgeon warned me: phantom pain may happen from time to time, and it is now a part of who I am.
That same oncologist pioneered synthetic bone matter to replace early-stage cancer-bearing bones. The same process with reconnecting nerve tissue and arterial conduits applies to organic bone coupling with synthetic bone. It takes time to properly fuse, if at all, and engenders painstaking, meticulous joiners conducted by steady surgical hands operating with microscopic-strength eyes.
I was not a candidate for the synthetic bone-fusion process, unfortunately. But I am elated to learn that Sgt. Peck has championed two new arms which, after lengthy rehabilitation ending in healthy regeneration of bone and tissue mass, can pitch a baseball like it’s nobody’s business.
I write this after a noon visit with my prosthetist on whose clinic wall were the following words: “When odds are one in a million, be that one.” I’d like to think that Sgt. Peck is that one.
Although the article you are reading is under the OpsLens category “Celebrating Heroes” denoting the vast extents of survivorship for Sgt. Peck, there are others who deserve vast recognition: the 14 surgeons who threaded scintillas of tissue together for over 16 hours, whose expert surgical talents were provided free of charge. Perhaps most instrumental is the decedent, the anonymous organ donor whose own mortality and selflessness resulted in a better quality of life for a perfect stranger who fought for freedoms and paid a steep price in doing so. Second-chance concepts are epitomized by a collection of people who would otherwise never know each other but for trying to repair tragedy.
With the miracle of two new arms attached and restored motility in the palms of his hands, what else is Sgt. Peck cooking up? Turns out he has a knack for preparing cuisine and has his sights set on becoming “a Food Network star” just like Guy Fieri and Bobby Flay, some of Peck’s idols.
Further, Peck wrote a book—”Rebuilding Sergeant Peck: How I Put Body and Soul Back Together After Afghanistan” is slated for publication next year. As well, he is planning a public-speaking tour to promote said book and share his surreal story with the world. Sgt. Peck’s remarkable saga can be followed via John’s Pecks’ Journey.
As of this writing, Sergeant Peck is planning guest appearance(s) on OpsLens founder Drew Berquist’s CRTV show “Experience Matters with Drew Berquist.” Stay tuned, folks…
