Optimists, community help family after ski crash

ST. CLAIR SHORES — The Optimist Club of St. Clair Shores has stepped up to help out a family after a life-changing crash.

Early in the year, Connor Peiper was enjoying a ski club outing when he got into a bad crash. He said he took a jump that sent him 18 feet in the air on a particularly icy day.

“I landed flat on my back,” Connor said.

His mom, Melissa Peiper, added it was 15-foot jump. Connor said he remembered standing up before collapsing and coughing up blood.

“I’m like, ‘OK, guys. I need an ambulance,’” Connor said. “And they’re like, ‘You’re fine, but we’ll go get them now.’”

Connor was taken to a hospital where he waited in the emergency room for around an hour and a half, still bleeding. A man next to Connor recognized the severity of his injuries and that sped up his treatment.

Connor remembers Melissa arriving and feeling happiness. He coded for the first time, received two rounds of surgery and coded twice during the whole process. Connor said he later went septic because a surgeon nicked his stomach while removing his spleen.

He had to go back to Corewell Health closer to home where he said he was seen by more surgeons.

“I had a deflated lung, and I had what is called a plural, which is a fluid sack on your lung of just infected, like liquid, goo,” Connor said.

Melissa said her son was in the hospital for a total of seven and half weeks.

When members of the Optimist Club of St. Clair Shores heard about what happened to Connor, they put together a restaurant week fundraiser. Participating restaurants donated 10% of their proceeds to Connor and his family for different costs. Nine restaurants participated in the fundraiser.

Brian Owens, a member of the club, said they weren’t doing anything in April and thought Connor needed more than the money they already got.

“So I thought let’s hold a fundraiser and that’s what we did,” Owens said.

They raised $3,150 for the family.

Connor’s friends supported him through the process. Melissa said Connor’s brothers were allowed to see him in the first few weeks because they didn’t know if he was going to make it through.

“They didn’t know if it was a goodbye or not,” Melissa said. “So that’s what they said was their goodbye and hi and love you, whatever, and then no one else was allowed to see him.”

Melissa said family members were allowed to see Connor when he started to get better at the first hospital. At the next hospital, no one could see Connor for the first week and then his family could come see him.

Lakeview High School staff including the office receptionist Vicki Stys helped out a lot, allowing him to get out of class early and other things. The crash didn’t prevent him from graduating this year with teachers exempting him from different assignments and late work.

Melissa said when the fundraiser was brought up by her husband, she and Connor were going through a lot. They initially didn’t want the fundraiser.

“Because when you have a lot of attention on you for so long it can get kind of hard,” Melissa said. “And then we realized what they were doing for us and then we were grateful.”

She went on to say the parents at the preschool she directs found out and came out to support.

“Everybody came to support, Grosse Pointe, everybody, it was really truly amazing,” Melissa said.

The family wasn’t expecting the amount of support it got. A couple of businesses gave care packages and other things. They weren’t expecting the amount of money, either.

“It was really great,” Connor said.

“We’re lucky that he’s here,” Melissa said.