Free Republic

12/2/2005 - LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- Six-week-old Liliana Renovata of Galveston, Texas, looks completely healthy in her mother’s arms. She is feeding well and exhibits normal brain function. So Liliana will go home with her parents this week. Doctors said no baby has ever looked so good after 20 days on heart and lung bypass machines and a five-hour open-heart surgery. One surgeon calls her rescue “an amazing save.” Physicians from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Wilford Hall Medical Center and San Antonio’s CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital made that possible. When...

11/2/2005 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- For a Navy maintainer and Air Force medic, both stationed at this forward-deployed location, their first meeting was an unforgettable one. Petty Officer 1st Class Jerry Lego, Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One structural mechanic, performed the Heimlich maneuver on Lt. Col. Lois MacDonald, 379th Expeditionary Medical Group Medical Operations Flight commander, as she was choking on her meal Oct. 28 at a base dining facility here. “I had aspirated a piece of potato which caused the obstruction,” Colonel MacDonald said. “Petty Officer Lego immediately recognized that I was in distress.” According to Petty Officer...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Oct. 31, 2005) -- An Iraqi police officer owes his life to a U.S. Army medic who treated his wounds as terrorists fired on their position Oct. 10. “I didn’t have time to think about it,” said Spc. Andrew “Doc” Suchanek, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. “I just knew I didn’t want that guy to get hurt even worse. I just reacted.” While on a routine patrol in west Baghdad, Suchanek and other Soldiers of C Company, 1/87 Infantry responded to assist Iraqi Police who had come under fire from...

U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. David Diceglie, 42nd Infantry Division Artillery, holds some captured enemy ammunition at a cache site. Diceglie was one of a team of U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Liberty who supervised the destruction of caches like this one. Photo courtesy of 42nd Infantry Division Artillery Ordnance Disposal Reclaims Farmland, Saves Lives Unexploded ordnance in Iraq includes a wide assortment of artillery, rocket and mortar rounds and in some cases, anti-ship cruise missiles. By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Raymond Drumsta 42nd Infantry Division Public Affairs FORWARD OPERATING BASE SUMMERALL, BAYJI, Iraq, Oct. 27, 2005 — In...

In the gunner’s hatch of his Humvee, Spc. Dean Levy poses with fellow crew members (left to right): Staff Sgt. Herminio Rodriguez, Spc. Patrick Grubert, and 42nd Infantry Division Artillery Command Sgt. Maj. Dennis Flynn. The picture was taken on Levy’s first day back to work after recovering from burns he suffered in a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device explosion. Flynn is holding the leash of “Zappa”, a dual-purpose explosive detection dog. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Raymond Drumsta U.S. Army Spc. Dean Levy Gunner Goes Head-to-Head with a V-Bed, Saves Crew By Staff Sgt. Raymond Drumsta, 42nd Infantry...

Maggot Treatment Saves Mich. Woman's Foot Sun Jul 24, 9:38 AM ET BAY CITY, Mich. - Barbara Enser wasn't very comfortable at first with the idea of using maggots to clean the wound on her right foot. But if it meant saving it from amputation, she was willing to give it a try. The 57-year-old Bay City woman was diagnosed with diabetes 40 years ago and subsequently lost her left leg to the disease. She also suffers from neuropathy, meaning she has no feeling in her foot or leg, and ulcers or wounds can develop from constantly putting pressure on...

TAMPA, FL -- A Tampa woman is hoping the bait a trapper set Monday night will lure a killer alligator. "The only thing that can make any kind of sense out of this is Bob had to go to save me. You know, there was a choice," said Cindy Hernandez, dog killed by Alligator. Earlier in the day the alligator was heading right for Cindy Hernandez. She was swimming off her dock along the Hillsborough River. Before the alligator reached her, her dog Bob swam in between them. Bob was killed, while Hernandez was able to safely swim to the...

ST. CLOUD -- In Iraq, a baby named Mustafa has a shot at becoming a man thanks to a few quick breaths from a Minnesota medic on Christmas. Army Staff Sgt. Shawn Dowling shared the tale in an e-mail with her family. The message was later posted on the family's Web site. Dowling, a Richmond, Minn., native and a 1999 Rocori High School graduate, was supposed to spend Christmas visiting military camps around the city of Baqubah, which is about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad. "I grumbled as I stepped outside to the rain and mud, fumbled to the shower,...

When Mother Nature unleashed its wrath, a member of the Animal Kingdom stepped in. A British tourist says she saw an elephant save several children on a Thai beach when the killer waves struck. The animal had been brought to a beach resort in Phuket to entertain children. Laura Barnett says the elephant's keeper hoisted kids up onto the animal's back, and then walked them off to safety. Barnett told her tale from London. She and her family escaped the disaster, but the beach where she was staying was destroyed.

PENANG: While thousands of people lost their lives when a tsunami hit the region, a 20-day-old baby survived, thanks to a floating mattress. When the tsunami hit the popular Miami Beach in Batu Ferringhi here at about 1.15pm, S. Tulasi was sleeping in a room behind her father’s western food outlet along the beach. “We were all caught off guard when the wave hit us. I was thrown several metres away but managed to hold onto one of the posts but my 12-year-old daughter was swept by the wave,” said A. Suppiah. Suppiah, 55, said his wife, Annal Mary, 40,...