Marckres, who lost both legs to diabetes complications, told CNN that his right prosthesis fell off Saturday during the 10,000-foot drop from the plane to the landing area in West Addison, Vermont.
“I never knew. I think my adrenaline shot up so much that it just wasn’t my focus,” he said. “I was paying attention to everything else and just enjoying it.”
The two-month leg cost $ 20,000, and Marckres didn’t think his insurance company would pay to replace it. That meant that she would have had to use a wheelchair instead of walking alone and that getting to her dialysis appointments three times a week would have been a challenge.
The 47-year-old man went on Facebook and asked people to watch his leg, but he was not very optimistic.
But a day later, Marckres received news from Joseph Marszalkowski, a farmer who had seen his post. He had found the prosthetic leg in a 110-acre soybean field.
Dozens aided in the search
Marckres’ post was widely shared in the area. About a hundred people came to help him search, he said.
A woman with experience in law enforcement came to help coordinate the effort and a man who trains search and rescue dogs also came to search, Marckres said. Some climbed onto ATVs and dirt bikes, others joined on foot.
“The response was simply overwhelming, literally hundreds of hundreds of text messages from people offering ‘what can we do to help do to help?'” He said. “It really is a humiliating experience. It somehow restores your faith in humanity that there are still so many truly good people in the world who are willing to help a complete stranger.”
Meanwhile, Marszalkowski, who cultivates the fields around the skydiving facility, started his own search after seeing the post on social media.
He said his brother once found a paratrooper’s wallet and was able to return it.
So on Sunday night, the farmer searched the 110-acre soybean field near where the skydiving planes land. He used his drone until the battery ran out, and then he walked through tall grass and soybeans up to his waist for about three hours until it started to get dark.
He gave up at night. But as he walked back to his truck, he saw the dark gray leg in the grass.
“Honestly, it was lucky that I chose that field and I was able to find it for the man,” he told CNN. “I am happy and I am really proud that I had the opportunity to do the right thing for this man.”
Turning the leg
Marszalkowski sent Marckres a photo of the leg, and they arranged to meet Monday, so he could return it.
The leg was barely scratched, and Marckres said he was able to put it on and take it home.
Marckres insisted on giving a reward, but Marszalkowski did not want to take it.
“It made me accept a reward and I didn’t take no for an answer,” said Marszalkowski.
As a pledge, Marszalkowski said he would take the money to help him pay for his own skydiving trip, as long as Marckres goes with him. They are planning to jump together sometime in the fall.
“It was a pretty insignificant amount compared to what he did for me and I literally had to argue with him,” said Marckres. “There are simply no words to thank him enough. I will never be able to thank him enough for what he did.”
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