89-year-old SoCal hospice patient wished he could skydive again, so his care team made it happen
Gary Patmor is proof that it's never too late to have an epic adventure!
LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. (KABC) -- Gary Patmor has lived a life of adventure and at 89 years old, the retired aerospace engineer is showing age doesn't mean adventures have to end.
So he chose to go skydiving.
"Oh, it is just fun exciting," he said.
While he is a man of few words, Patmor is a man with plenty of stories he could tell. He's logged more than 1,300 jumps out of civilian, military, antique and experimental aircrafts.
In 1962, Patmor sky-surfed with a 4-foot boogie board and has been towed behind an airplane. He survived 38 malfunctioning parachutes and he even doubled for Steve McQueen on film.
"He did stunts for the commercials and also for movies," said Patmor's wife of 30 years, Sheri.
His backstory has been an incredible journey he has shared with others.
"He was actually also the first person to mount a Sony camera and jump out of a plane," said Jocelyn Brito, a social worker for Suncrest Hospice in Riverside where Patmor is now a patient. "So kind of like GoPros nowadays, but a Sony camera."
Life has slowed down a bit for Patmor but that doesn't mean much.
"We never want to stop someone from living," said Leticia Goodwin with Suncrest Hospice. "So we don't stop anything. If anything, we want to add value like we are today for Mr. Gary Patmor."
While end-of-life care is the primary focus of Suncrest, they are also in the wish-granting business. Patmor's care team approached his wife to see if there was a request they could fulfill.
"One of the things that he wanted to do was he wanted to skydive again," said Jessica Fields with Suncrest Hospice. "So we had to make sure that we got the doctor clearance, of course, and then the skydiving company to be able to consent to that before we offered it."
On Friday afternoon, Patmor boarded a plane at Sky Dive Elsinore, making him the oldest skydiver of the day.
At 13,000 feet, he took a leap, strapped to an instructor and made his descent to the ground where his wife and Suncrest Hospice staff members cheered him on.
"This isn't something he would have signed up for on his own," said Sheri. "We just laid in place pieces out for him to take advantage of it and he is, and I am very happy that he finally could jump. This is where he made his first jump back in the '60s."
In case you were wondering, Friday's jump is Patmor's 1,338th!
