Rest in Peace, Dr. John Pryor

December 29, 2008 6:28 PM

A sad note about a doctor we spoke to in a recent "Nightline" report.

When we read the words Dr. John Pryor wrote for a Washington Post op-ed piece, we knew he was someone the nation needed to hear. He was a trauma surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, which, due to an unfortunate increase in gun violence, is one of the busiest trauma centers in America. The doctors there treat so many gunshot victims successfully, that it has become a place other doctors go to learn how to treat those kinds of wounds.

We spoke to him about the tragedy of gun violence here, but Dr. Pryor was also known as Major Pryor -- he was in the Army Reserve, and he volunteered to take his expertise in gunshot wounds to the front line, to teach surgeons there how to better care for wounded troops and civilians. 

But on Christmas day in Mosul, while sharing that medical expertise during his second tour of duty in Iraq, Major Pryor was killed by enemy mortar fire.

Pryor's colleagues at Penn, where he served as the trauma program director and a professor of surgery, described him as a "magical man, with boundless energy and goodness," who taught selflessness by example.

In his op-ed piece Dr. Pryor, 42, wrote, "In Iraq, soldiers die for freedom, for honor, for their country and for their buddies. Here in Philadelphia, they die without honor, without purpose, for no country, for no one." 

Dr. Pryor lived, and died, with honor. 

He leaves behind a wife and three children, ages 4, 8, and 10. We offer our deepest sympathy to the Pryor family, and to his bereaved colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania.