Print edition: 
Chester Peak and other volunteer firefighters from Kirwin were called to the scene of a semi on fire.
Flaming debris from the wooden roof of the town's water tower, which was being repaired, had showered down on the truck and caught the back tires on fire.
Suddenly, a blast from inside the trailer — apparently caused by exploding paint thinner — blew the doors open and knocked Peak nearly 30 feet. It left him with a broken nose and a traumatic brain injury.
He's still trying to recover from the incident last July in north-central Kansas.
Since mid-May, the 43-year-old Army veteran has lived with a Wichita family, Darrell and Gail Hacker, in the first Veterans Affairs medical foster care home in Kansas.
The program is designed to give vets who need extended care an alternative to a nursing home.
"I'm thrilled with it," said Gina Peak, Chester's wife. "Darrell and Gail keep him involved. They're like a big brother and sister to him."
After the explosion, Peak spent two months in two Nebraska hospitals before being placed in an Omaha rehabilitation facility on Sept. 16 — Chester and Gina's 20th wedding anniversary.
By late February, the Omaha doctors began telling Gina they were close to doing all they could for her husband, and she needed to look for other options.
But what options? While Chester was OK physically, his short-term memory was very poor. He still needed one-on-one care, 24-hour supervision, regular mental-health oversight and help regulating his medications.
"It was more than we could do at home," she said. "And we don't have those kind of resources in Kirwin."
Getting help
Gina Peak didn't know it at the time, but Courtney Smith, a clinical social worker at Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita, had begun working in December toward setting up the first VA medical foster home in Kansas.
The program works like this:
A veteran chooses the home, which must be approved by the VA, and pays for the care. The vet and the caregiver negotiate the rate and the agreement, such as what services will be provided, Smith said.
The cost averages about $2,000 monthly and is paid from a variety of sources, including veteran benefits. In Peak's case, it is being paid through a workers' compensation claim as the result of the explosion.
VA medical providers come to the foster home to check blood pressure, adjust prescriptions, draw blood and meet the veteran's other medical needs. A recreational therapist drops by to check on quality of life.
VA social workers make unannounced visits to the homes to see whether the caregiver is properly taking care of the veteran.
Usually only one vet is in a foster home, although up to three are allowed if the level of required care is low.
The program began with one home in Little Rock in 1999 and now serves more than 900 veterans across the country.
Smith estimates the program could easily help 100 veterans in the Wichita area.
With the increasing number of veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, plus aging vets, she said, "The need is tremendous."
'Meant to be'
Gail Hacker, a pharmacy technician at the Dole VA center, heard Smith was starting the program and told her husband.
"I did some research, made some phone calls and said I'd be very interested," Darrell Hacker said. "I like helping people."
He had a lot in common with Peak. Disabled after being injured while in the Army in the late 1970s, Darrell Hacker was a volunteer fire chief in La Harpe in southeast Kansas.
He has worked in logistics for the Federal Emergency Management Agency — the Greensburg tornado in 2007 brought him to Wichita — and volunteered for the Red Cross and at the Dole VA center. He had also spent time as a caregiver for his former in-laws.
"Having caregiver experience, even if it is with a family member, is very important," Smith said. "That caregiver is there for emotional support and supervision."
Smith ran background checks on the Hackers, inspected their home in west Wichita for safety and security, liked what she saw and established it as the state's first VA medical foster home.
It wasn't long before she found someone who wanted to be in that home.
Gail Peak wasn't sure about the program when she first heard about it, but she changed her mind as she grew to understand it better.
She was sure of it after she came to Wichita this spring to visit the Hackers.
"I knew this was meant to be," Gail said. "I knew he was going to be taken care of."
Dedicated caregiving
During the first week or so Peak was in Hacker's home, Darrell said, "It was pretty rough. But he's settling in now."
Short-term memory is a problem.
"I can tell him my name 100 times a day," Darrell said, "but he won't remember it."
Although both of the Hackers are caregivers, most of the responsibility falls on Darrell.
He has to cue Chester to do most daily activities — time to get up, shower, eat.
Darrell and Chester take walks together in the tree-shaded neighborhood and along the nearby pond. They go to the grocery store and to American Legion events together.
"If I go somewhere, Chester goes with me," Darrell said. "He has to, but it also gets him out."
As they sat in the living room, he nodded toward Chester and said, "I'm going to start taking him to the Y with us, so we both can get some exercise."
Chester smiled.
It's clear Darrell is concerned about Chester's well-being. He has put his other work with FEMA and as a substitute teacher on hold.
"I want to give something back to veterans," he said. "I'd rather be in a home environment than a nursing home.
"We try to make him feel part of the family, not waiting in some room for a staff person to come by."
The Hackers don't have to do it alone. Regular visitors from the VA keep tabs not on Chester but the home.
"Hardly a day doesn't go by that someone isn't here," said Darrell, 52. "That's good. You have to be careful who you place and with whom.
"Some people are in it for the money. But if you are, it's not going to work out."
Coming home
Chester Peak worked as machine operator for a building products plant in nearby Phillipsburg.
An Army reservist, he was activated in 2007 and was deployed with a medical unit in Qatar near Afghanistan. He continued serving as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician when he returned home to Kirwin, setting an example for the couple's three children, ages 11 to 16.
Gina Peak said their 16-year-old daughter, Caitlin, has already talked about becoming an EMT like her dad.
Told of this, Chester said, "There's a long time before she has to decide. No hurry."
Now that it's summer, Gail and the children try to come to Wichita about every two weeks to see Chester. They talk daily on the phone.
Although she thinks her husband likes where he is, she said he always asks when he can come home to Kirwin.
Good question.
"Right now, it's a day-by-day thing," Gina said.
Darrell understands that as well.
"I hope every day I get up that he's back to where he was," he said. "But until he is, we're here for him."
