"Superman" Marine plugs own wounds with fingers

Marine shot during necklace robbery plugged bullet wounds with fingers

By Ihosvani Rodriguez, Sun Sentinel
9:14 p.m. EST, December 30, 2011

DEERFIELD BEACH—
One bullet went through his belly and lodged in his pelvis, while a second sliced through his chest and out his shoulder. Yet another grazed the back of his skull.

Shot and wounded while chasing thieves on foot, Lt. Col. Karl Trenker said he did what he had been trained to do as a 29-year veteran of the U.S. Marines with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Running with bullet holes wasn't working out well, so I plugged them up with my fingers," Trenker said Friday.

Trenker, 48, was not injured on the battlefield, but in an apartment complex parking lot in Deerfield Beach where he had gone to sell a necklace to a Craigslist buyer-turned-robber. Father and stepfather to seven children, Trenker was released Friday from North Broward Medical Center, nine days after the shooting.

Emergency physician Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, who removed part of Trenker's bowel and left a bullet in his pelvis, attributed the fact that Trenker is alive to his military training and lifestyle.

"When you hear someone is coming in with multiple gunshot wounds, you are concerned," Nichiporenko said. "He was in bad shape."

Trenker spoke several hours after leaving the hospital. He said he feels pain where a 10-inch surgery wound now crosses his stomach area. He walks with a slight limp, but that is expected to fade.

He recounted the moments leading up to the shooting, and described the actions that led his fiancee and doctor to refer to him as "Superman."
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