A double amputee skydiver who only noticed that his prosthetic leg had fallen off near the end of a dive has thanked the farmer who found it, spotting a Facebook post before scouring a soybean field to locate the artificial limb.
Chris Marckres had launched himself from a plane over fields as one of his “bucket list” items after being diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure when his prosthetic leg fell off in New England, only noticing his limb had been lost as he landed safely to ground with his instructor.
Hundreds of people embarked on a desperate search in response to a public appeal by the 47-year-old, who lost both of his legs as a result of complications relating to diabetes, to help find the $20,000 prosthetic.
Local farmer Joe Marszalkowski became the hero and saved Marckres from an insurance claim that he feared would have failed by joining the search and finding the leg on his land.
“He had seen the post on Facebook and said he felt obligated to help a fellow American,” a tearful Marckres told ABC News.
“He just got up and started walking these soybean fields until he had found the leg.
“I didn’t even realize until moments before the landing that I’d lost the leg.
“My adrenaline and everything was up so high that I never realized it was gone until the last minute, which was good because it didn’t ruin my dive, having me filled with all kinds of anxiety about losing the prosthetic.”
Marszalkowski said he had been lucky to discover the prosthetic in undamaged condition.
“I was able to find it without running it over with a machine or something,” he explained. “God forbid the combine sucked it up – it would have destroyed it.”
Marckres credited his fortune to a high power. “Somebody was really watching over me,” he suggested.
“Through this whole entire thing, to not lose faith in humanity…there are still a lot of really good people.
“Just have some faith. People do the right thing.”
