Doctor John J. Pryor—May 2010 Shipment Honoree

Army surgeon killed in Iraq

By Samantha Henry

The Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey doctor — who was a well-known trauma surgeon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania — has been killed in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense.

In a statement issued Friday night, the DoD said 42-year-old Maj. John P. Pryor of Moorestown died Christmas Day when a mortar round hit near his living quarters. He was serving with a forward surgical team with the Army’s 1st Medical Detachment, based in Fort Totten, N.Y.

Pryor’s colleagues said they were devastated by the loss of the married father of three young children.

“John was a man who truly believed that service to others was his calling,” said Dr. C. William Schwab, chief of trauma surgery and critical care at the hospital, which is in Philadelphia. “Whether it was volunteering at Ground Zero on 9/11 or with the Army, or serving the people of the community, that was what he was about.”

Schwab said Pryor joined the hospital in 1999 after graduating medical school at the State University of New York in Buffalo. He described Pryor as a “star” who quickly rose through the hospital ranks to become director of its trauma program.

Pryor deployed Dec. 6 for his second tour of duty in Iraq as a combat medic with the Army Reserves, and was due to come home in April, Schwab said. He said Pryor had studied Arabic, knowing he could be dealing with wounded Iraqi civilians — especially children — and wanted to make them feel at ease.

Pryor wrote of his experiences as a surgeon confronting violence in Iraq and inner-city Philadelphia in articles published in The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washington Post.

“As a trauma surgeon, every death I have is painful; every one takes a little out of me,” he wrote in a 2006 article in the Inquirer. “Losing these kids here in Iraq rips a hole through my soul so large that it’s hard for me to continue breathing.

“If I could say something to this Marine’s parents, it would be this: I am so sorry that you have lost your son. We, more than almost everyone else, know he was a true American hero.”

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Doctor killed in Iraq ‘elevated everyone’ to serve

By Joann Loviglio

The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — In every one of his many roles — husband, father, soldier, doctor, friend and colleague — Army Maj. John P. Pryor devoted his life to serve others at home, at work and in war.

“All we can do is what we think is the right thing to do,” the Rev. Damian J. McElroy told more than 1,000 mourners during Pryor’s funeral Mass on Monday at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. “He served humanity generously. He served God generously.”

Pryor, head of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania trauma team and a major in the Army Reserve, died Christmas Day when a mortar round struck near his living quarters in Mosul, Iraq.

The 42-year-old married father of three from Moorestown, N.J., arrived in Iraq on Dec. 6 to serve his second tour of duty with the Army reserves as a combat medic.

He received his medical school training at the State University of New York at Buffalo and arrived in 1999 at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received training in trauma surgery and critical care and became director of the Penn’s trauma program.

“Every one of his patients got the best care and his full commitment,” said Dr. Elizabeth Datner, medical director of Penn’s department of emergency medicine.

“You would expect that any medical provider would have a dedication to their patients, but it can be hard to sustain in a field where you see trauma over and over again and real heartache and misery,” she said. “People wanted to emulate John’s commitment to patients. He elevated everyone.”

Pryor was described by his colleagues, friends and relatives as a doting father and devoted husband.

“John loved his family, he loved his children. He lived and breathed for them,” McElroy, Pryor’s pastor at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Moorestown, N.J., said in his homily.

McElroy read parts of a letter Pryor wrote and left with family in the event of his death in Iraq. Acknowledging that some people closest to him did not support his decision to go to Iraq, Pryor wrote that he “hopes and prays for forgiveness from his family and colleagues.”

Rushing to New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and refusing to sit idly in a room with hundreds of other doctors awaiting instruction, Pryor “went out to the street, flagged down an ambulance and went to ground zero,” McElroy said.

He enlisted in the Army reserves after 9/11, not only completing the required training but also taking it upon himself to learn Arabic, McElroy said.

Pryor was serving his second tour with a forward surgical team with the Army’s 1st Medical Detachment, based in Fort Totten, N.Y. His first four-month tour was at a combat support hospital in 2006 at Abu Ghraib.

As chief medical adviser to the Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Pryor conducted disaster-relief training for volunteers. In those lectures, he drew parallels between the injuries soldiers experience on the battlefield and the injuries to shooting victims brought to Philadelphia emergency rooms.

A talented writer, Dr. Pryor contributed opinion articles to The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washington Post, and was interviewed repeatedly by NPR and ABC News.

In a June 2006 column in the Inquirer, Pryor wrote of the personal sense of loss and the intolerable grief that came with every soldier he couldn’t save.

He described the death of one young Marine on his operating room table and expressed his sorrow to the family of the soldier, whom he did not identify. Pryor’s words about the Marine echo those spoken about him in the days following his death.

“We, more than almost anyone else, know he was a true American hero,” Pryor wrote to the soldier’s family. “I also want you to know that I will never forget your son, and that I will pray for him and all of the children lost in this war.”

Pryor is survived by his wife, Carmela Calvo, a pediatrician at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children; a daughter, Danielle, 10; sons Francis, 8, and John Jr., 4; a brother, Richard; and his parents, Richard C. and Victoria.

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Moorestown Renames Park After Fallen Surgeon

By: TODD MCHALE

Burlington County Times

MOORESTOWN - The township has dedicated one of its parks to Maj. John P. Pryor, the Army Reserves doctor who was killed while serving in Iraq.

"This guy was truly a hero," Mayor Daniel Roccato said of the trauma surgeon who died in a mortar attack Christmas morning 2008 in Mosul, northern Iraq.

At the time of the attack, Pryor was serving his second tour of duty since 2006.

Ever since the death of the 42-year-old father of three children, the township has brainstormed about what would be the best way for the community to recognize the man who dedicated his life to serving others.

Officials decided to rename Salem Park at Borton Landing and Hartford roads after Pryor.

"The park is a way to honor John's legacy," Roccato said. "It is our hope this park becomes a lasting memorial to John's legacy as well as place of peace and joy."

Pryor's wife, Carmela Calvo, said the family appreciates what the community has done.

"I'm very honored and very touched," Calvo said. "This is wonderful for the children. This (park) embodies life."

Calvo said her husband would be embarrassed by all the attention, but also would have gotten a kick out of a park named after him.

The new John P. Pryor Park gives her children a place to go to remember their father as well as run around and have fun with friends.

"It gives them a sense of hope + (because) we're still grieving," she said.

Pryor, who worked at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, was serving as a battlefield surgeon with the 1st Medical Detachment, Forward Surgical Team based out of Fort Totten, N.Y., when a mortar round exploded near his living quarters.

Just a few years earlier, he hitched a ride on an ambulance to help those injured at ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

That experience inspired him to serve his country.

Pryor joined the Army Reserves Medical Corps and in 2006 served his first three-month tour of duty. He returned for a second tour on Dec. 6, 2008.

Calvo said her husband believed that he had a duty to serve and to do whatever he could to help the soldiers.

The members of Landstuhl Hospital Care Project were honored to remember John during the month of May 2010 with our shipments to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, and U.S. military hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Our thoughts and prayers remain with John's family and friends today and in the years to come.