The Power of PrayerWith one miracle behind them, the family of critically wounded Army Spc. John Pirinelli hopes for a second miracle of recovery at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.
The 23-year-old soldier from the Niagara County hamlet of Bergholz was shot in the back while on patrol in Iraq last Wednesday. After he was stabilized at a field hospital near Tikrit, he was flown to Europe and is just starting to come out of a drug-induced coma.
It took something of a miracle to get two of four family members from the Buffalo area to his bedside on short notice, and now they are making a public appeal for prayer to save the soldier's life.
"When John's doctor called us Sunday to come to Germany, he painted a horribly grim picture, but now it is Tuesday and his surgeon says, "It's miraculous this boy is still alive,' " Rise Pirinelli, the mother of the soldier, said in a telephone interview moments after leaving her son's bedside late Tuesday.
She said she is convinced that prayer has already helped her son - a giant of a man at 6-feet, 6-inches tall and 230 pounds - survive the trip to Germany.
The bullet destroyed one of his kidneys and severed his colon.
"Before I left his bedside, his eyelids started to flutter when I told him I was going to lie down and come back later and stay with him for the night so his wife could have a break," Mrs. Pirinelli said, adding that her son has a strong faith, which she hopes will carry him through this ordeal.
Family members credit State Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-North Tonawanda, with assisting two relatives in obtaining passports at the last minute.
Neither Philip Pirinelli, the soldier's older brother, nor Philip's wife, Stephanie, possessed passports..
Unlike Rise Pirinelli and her husband, Robert, who flew out of Detroit Monday afternoon, Philip Pirinelli had booked a 3 p.m. Monday flight out of New York City's LaGuardia Airport for Germany.
With about 24 hours before the scheduled departure of the flight, Ruth Pirinelli, an aunt in Niagara Falls, began calling elected officials to see if someone could help.
She wasn't surprised when her calls went unanswered. It was, after all, Sunday afternoon.
Then she found a listing for Maziarz's North Tonawanda home.
"I said, "I need your help,' and explained the situation. He said he would make some calls," Ruth Pirinelli said.
Maziarz, the former clerk of Niagara County, called Cathy Clement, who handles passports for that office, and found out what paperwork would be needed.
Maziarz said Clement also told him there was a U.S. State Department office in Manhattan that issued passports the same day as the paperwork was submitted.
But there was a problem. Philip and Stephanie Pirinelli's original birth certificates were in a file at the Erie County Surrogate's Court in Buffalo.
"They're in the process of adopting a baby, and their birth certificates were in a file at the courthouse," Maziarz said.
Undaunted, the senator called State Supreme Court Justice Richard Kloch to find out how they could retrieve the certificates on a Sunday afternoon. Kloch put Maziarz in touch with Surrogate's Court Clerk Paul J. Smaldone.
At 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Smaldone delivered the papers to Maziarz, who then met with the Pirinellis at his Lockport office.
Not leaving anything to chance, Maziarz called Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence, to find out what to do to ensure the passports would be obtained.
"Tom called me back and said that it would be necessary to get in line at the office by 5 or 6 in the morning because the line gets so long that by noon they cut it off and you have to come back the next day," Maziarz said.
With the possibility of catching a Sunday evening flight to New York City no longer an option, Maziarz said he decided to drive the Pirinellis to Manhattan because he could not bear the thought of them missing the chance to go to Germany and provide support for the wounded soldier.
At 2:30 a.m. Monday, they stopped in Albany and picked up Michael Norris, a Maziarz staffer, who helped with the driving on the final leg of the journey.
"We arrived at 5:30 a.m. in front of the passport office and were third in line. By 11 a.m. they had their passports and were on their way to LaGuardia Airport," Maziarz said.
At about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, the parents and brother and sister-in-law arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, and were met by Army officers who drove them three hours to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
Already at the hospital was the soldier's German wife, Katrin, who is six months pregnant with their first child, a son. Rise Pirinelli and the other family members joined the bedside vigil.
"We'll stay however long it takes. John is the real hero of our family," his mother said. To that end, family members in Western New York have organized a prayer service for John and for all the troops in Iraq. The gathering is set for 8:30 p.m. Thursday in Gateway Park, North Tonawanda.
