First Lt. Christopher Parks, a physician's assistant, currently assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Hood, Texas, and a native of Lakeside, Calif., stretches before competing in the discus event of the Army Trials at Fort Bliss, Texas...
QUANTICO, Va. (Army News Service, June 26, 2015) -- First Lt. Christopher Parks, who on Thursday helped Team Army earn the No. 1 seed in sitting volleyball, already feels like one of the biggest winners at the 2015 Department of Defense Warrior Games.
"Pretty darn amazing," said Parks, 42, who struck silver in the shot put, bronze in the discus, and competed in wheelchair basketball and hand-cycling before hitting the sitting volleyball court, where another medal appears inevitable. He also will compete in swimming on Saturday.
"Pretty darn amazing," repeated Parks, a physician assistant who in March of 2014 lost most of his right leg to flesh-eating bacteria known as necrotizing fasciitis.
"I went to bed February 28th feeling fine, everything was fine," recalled Parks, a native of San Diego stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. "I woke up April 15th in San Antonio with no leg and no idea what the heck happened."
Necrotizing fasciitis is an infection that starts in the tissues just below the skin and spreads along the flat layers of fascia that separate different layers of soft tissue, such as muscle and fat. The dangerous and potentially fatal infection most commonly occurs in arms, legs and abdominal wall.
"It had gone through and crushed my kidneys, my liver, my lungs," said Parks, who contracted the infection via a cut on his heel. "It caused me a little bit of traumatic brain injury issues, and there was only one option, and that was to chop it off. Either take the leg, or lose the life."
His right leg was amputated March 3, 2014.
"You hear about these kids nowadays that are cutters -- they say it relieves the pain or pressure," Parks said. "They have no idea what they're doing. They could get something like this, that easy," he added with a snap of his fingers.
Sixteen months later, Parks was a stalwart at the net as Team Army roared to two-game sweeps in sitting volleyball against Air Force, Navy, British Armed Forces and Special Operations Command before bowing to the host Marines in the nightcap.
Thursday's round-robin play set the bracket for the championship tournament, which runs Friday through Sunday. By virtue of securing the top two seeds, Army and Air Force earned byes, and a day of rest, on Friday.
This week, Parks has added incentive for waking up each day to compete in the Warrior Games, an adaptive sports competition for wounded, ill, and injured service members and veterans.
"It's a little taxing," Parks said of competing in numerous events. "But you only have one week to compete hard, so you give it everything you've got every time."
Parks heard about another Soldier who contracted necrotizing fasciitis.
"I met one down in San Antonio," said Parks, who recovered from surgery last autumn at the Center for the Intrepid at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. "She lost all four limbs."
Parks swam and played water polo in high school, and dabbled with pickup volleyball matches on the beaches of San Diego. He discovered sitting volleyball four months ago. Now, he is determined to medal in the event at the Warrior Games. Even better than the hardware potential, he said, is the camaraderie of his teammates and competitors.
Parks said the Warrior Games have helped him "an amazing amount -- it's immeasurable, actually.
"It helps you physically. It also helps you mentally and spiritually. It makes you feel like part of a team and a family that you didn't even know existed. I've never done anything [athletically] nearly to this level. I played sports in high school for four years, but it just wasn't the same."
Parks, a 23-year Army veteran, deployed to Qatar in 2003-04 and Iraq in 2005-06. His active-duty career likely will end in 2016.
"I wouldn't be here today and having done the things that I've done without the loving support of my family and friends," Parks said. "There's no way possible. I've came leaps and bounds from a year ago, being in a coma and figuring out that I lost my leg, to where I am today. I couldn't have done it without them."
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