Excerpts from mysuburbanlife.com:
Kankakee Firefighter Derek Hogg continued to work for a year and a half after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in May 2013.
Holly Hogg, Derek’s wife, said that Derek made the decision to step back from firefighting when his arm gave out during training.
“If you can’t run into a building to pick someone up, it’s probably not a good idea to keep in that line of work,” Holly said.
Derek may have retired from firefighting, but he didn’t retire from helping others. He raised awareness and impacted the ALS community through his annual participation (through 2017) in the Les Turner Strike Out ALS 5K and Walk Run and Roll.
A celebration of Derek’s life will be 8 p.m. Tuesday at Baskerville Funeral Home, 700 E. Kahler Road in Wilmington.
After attending Joliet Junior College, he went on to Chief Shabbona Fire Training Academy and the paramedic program at St. Mary’s Hospital Emergency Medical Services in Kankakee. While at the academy, he worked for the Troy Fire Protection District, and later for the Kankakee City Fire Department and the Wilmington Fire Protection District.
On Dec. 11, Derek announced on his Facebook page his decision to remove himself from life support. He was intubated Oct. 29 after a cold turned into pneumonia and septic shock. In that post, Derek said he was leaving the world a better place because of his children.
By the time Derek was hospitalized, he had a feeding tube and communicated with eye-controlled assistive technology. He died Dec. 15. He was 34. Derek and Holly are the parents of Paxton, 5, Hayden, 3, and Brinlee, 1.
