How a skydiver was reunited with his prosthetic leg after losing it in the skies of Vermont
Chris Marckres dove from an airplane with two prosthetic legs, but landed with only one
A skydiver lost a prosthetic leg mid-jump over Vermont, prompting a massive search effort. A soybean farmer eventually found it for him — shoe attached and all.
Chris Marckres, a double amputee from Hyde Park, Vt., skydived for the first time over the weekend. About 20 seconds before he landed, he realized one of his prosthetic legs was missing.
"I think my adrenaline was so high that I just never even realized it until I actually looked down and saw I was missing it," he told As It Happens guest host Susan Bonner.
"Apparently, the air pressure changes the volume of my stumps, and they literally shrunk, and my leg was able to slide right off."
The tandem skydive was a gift from his ex-wife.
"I've recently been diagnosed with end stage kidney failure, so my bucket list has now become a little bit more of a priority list to me," he said.
After Marckres and his instructor from Vermont Skydiving Adventures in West Addison, Vt., landed safely, he and his friends searched for the lost leg. But they couldn't find it anywhere.
Marckres posted about it on Facebook, where it was shared more than 1,500 times. Before long, dozens of locals were helping him search — even some on ATVs. His ex-wife spent two hours searching a hayfield in her dress shoes.
"She's just a wonderful person," Marckres said.
Soybean farmer Joe Marszalkowski saw the plea and eventually found the leg in one of his fields.
"I was very grateful to have found it without running it over with a machine this fall during harvest," Marszalkowski told New England Cable News. "Or, God forbid, the combine sucked it up — it would've destroyed it."
But Marckres was more concerned about what damage the leg could do to harvesting equipment. It's worth about $20,000 US and mostly made of titanium.
Marckres picked the leg up from Marszalkowski on Monday. It was undamaged, save for a few scratches. The two men said they might skydive together one day.
Written by Mary Vallis. Produced by Katie Geleff. With files from The Associated Press.
