Surgery successful for Crockery fire chief

Thu, Mar 27, 2008    to del.icio.us

CROCKERY TOWNSHIP — After a 10-hour surgery two weeks ago — followed by a week of recovery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. — Crockery Township Fire Chief Gary Dreyer is already working again.

Although Dreyer doesn't expect to be back to the township fire station for a week or two, he's already busy filling out grant applications at home.

"We're looking into replacing the jaws of life, which is well over 20 years old," he said. "Our current set is down for some repairs, so it's quite timely."

Dreyer underwent reconstructive surgery on March 13 to help increase blood flow to his legs. His circulation has been worse ever since doctors removed a 6.5-pound cancerous tumor from behind his kidney in 2005.

"Everything went well," said his wife, Cathy Dreyer, who works as a nurse in Grand Rapids. "Everything they needed to accomplish got accomplished."

The surgery, which doctors anticipated to take five or six hours, was complicated by scarring from his previous operation, she said.

Doctors inserted a 13-centimeter graft so blood could bypass the area where his interior vena cava was removed, Gary Dreyer said.

After a week of recovery at the Mayo Clinic, Cathy and Gary's father, Al Dreyer, drove him home Friday.

Dreyer also receives daily briefings from John Krieger Jr., deputy chief of the Crockery Fire Department. Krieger has been in charge of the department since Dreyer left on March 10.

Dreyer has strict lifting restrictions for six weeks, he said, and will go back to the Mayo Clinic in June for a follow-up appointment.

"Knowing him, as soon as he can drive, he'll be back over and working on a limited basis," Crockery Township Supervisor Leon Stille said.