The good guys thread

[cassiesmom]

This little guy was discharged from the hospital today. He's truly a miracle kid.

All involved agree, sand dune rescue 'a miracle'


CHICAGO (AP) — One minute, 6-year-old Nathan Woessner was scampering up a massive dune in northern Indiana with his dad and a friend. He was gone the next, without a warning or sound.

More than three hours later, rescuers pulled Nathan out from under 11 feet of sand on Friday. He showed no signs of life: He was cold to the touch, had no pulse and wasn't breathing. His limp body was put into the back of a pickup truck, which started toward a waiting ambulance.

The plan was to take him to the hospital rather than the coroner's office, even if he was dead, in order to "give the family and rescue workers hope," La Porte (Ind.) County Chief Deputy Coroner Mark Huffman said Monday.

As the truck bounced over the dune, a medic noticed something astonishing: The boy took a breath. Then, the cut on his head started bleeding. The jolt apparently shocked Nathan's body back to life, Huffman said. Nathan was rushed to the hospital and was crying in the emergency room when Huffman arrived a few minutes later.

"Man, I tell you that was such a great feeling," Huffman said. "This is not something that I as the chief deputy coroner get to report that often. It's an absolute miracle this child survived."

Nathan, of Sterling, Ill., remains in critical condition at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital, but he is expected to recover and be released in 10 to 14 days, Dr. Tracy Koogler said Monday. Of greatest concern is his lungs, as the amount of sand he breathed in could lead to asthma-like symptoms, she said.

Don Reul, Nathan's grandfather, was getting ready for bed after a long day of tooling around on motorcycles in New York state with his wife and another couple when the phone rang. On the other end was the "hysterical" voice of his daughter, Faith Woessner.

In this July 12, 2013 file photo, Michigan City police and firefighters dig with shovels to r …"She said, 'Dad, Dad, we can't find him, he's under the sand," said Reul, a minister from Galva, Ill.

But he understood little else, and by the time he hung up, he believed that his grandson had fallen on the beach at Indiana Dunes National Seashore and had been pulled into Lake Michigan.

"I said Nathan has died, he's drowned," Reul told his wife.

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, running for about 25 miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, is a popular vacation spot that has long attracted families, hikers and birdwatchers. The dune Nathan fell feet-first into is one of the tallest, the 123-foot-tall Mount Baldy.

Nathan's 8-year-old friend rushed to where his dad and Nathan's dad were, and told them Nathan had vanished. Reul said that by the time Nathan's father found the hole, he could hear his son, but not see him.

The two men frantically dug sand from the spot where Nathan had fallen, but stopped after it was about four feet deep, Reul said, realizing they may have driven Nathan "deeper and deeper." Faith Woessner, meanwhile, was begging people to help them dig.

Michigan City, Ind., firefighters soon arrived and excavating companies brought backhoes and other heavy equipment to try to catch up with the boy, who was still sinking into the sand. According to media reports, the first responders pushed a rod down into the sand in the hopes of finding the boy.

In this July 12, 2013, photo rescue workers with heavy equipment working to free 6-year-old Nathan W …Hours passed without a sign of Nathan. Huffman, the coroner arrived, which Reul said must have been a sure sign that the rescuers feared the worst: It wouldn't be a rescue.

Then, volunteer firefighter Ryan Miller, the vice president of an excavating company, spotted the outline of what looked like a rotten tree about 11 feet down — maybe more — and pushed the rod until it stopped at the boy. Michigan City firefighter Brad Kreighbaum reached down and "felt what he believed to be Nathan's head," Miller said.

It was just in time, as there was no air pocket surrounding Nathan.

"He was fully encapsulated in sand," Miller said, noting it took about five firefighters to pull him out.

Once the family heard the boy was bleeding, Reul said, "Hope began to bubble up... that Nathan's not gone."

He was airlifted to the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital from an Indiana hospital Friday night.

"I expected him to arrive much sicker than he did," said Koogler, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit.

In this July 12, 2013, photo rescue workers with a stretcher carrying 6-year-old Nathan Woessner aft …Nathan was sedated so doctors could remove as much of the sand in his lungs as possible. She said Monday doctors don't see any more sand particles, but believe some is still in there.

Doctors also said early neurological tests didn't reveal any brain damage; Nathan can move his arms, legs, fingers and toes. Koogler also said Nathan's eyes appear to be fine, adding he must have had closed them while buried in the sand.

She said the biggest concern remains the boy's lungs, telling reporters Monday that Nathan could develop asthma-like symptoms in the months to come, but that the injury to his lungs was "not nearly as severe as I expected it to be."

Koogler said if Nathan continues to recover at the same rate, he would likely be taken off the ventilator by the end of the week and released from the hospital in 10-14 days, but may need another month in a rehab facility.

In six months, she said, 'I'm hoping that he's going to be acting like a normal 6- to 7-year-old, riding a bicycle, doing what a normal 6- or 7-year-old does."

Reul said that before he and his wife heard anything about his grandson, he experienced sharp, stabbing pains in his chest. Reul was not ready to say Monday that those pains happened at approximately the time his grandson fell into the sinkhole.

But he was sure of what happened after: "It is a miracle."

[kuhio98]

This little guy was discharged from the hospital today. He's truly a miracle kid.

Definitely a miracle survival. If he was a cat, I'd say he used up all of his 9 lives!

Nathan, little buddy, I pray you have a long and happy life.

[cassiesmom]

NFL Rookie Rescues Woman and Her Three Kids while Driving to Training Camp
JULY 26, 2013
Ryan Gorman, Daily Mail
An NFL rookie is being called a hero after pulling a family to safety from a burning car Tuesday. Jonathan ‘Tig’ Willard, an undrafted free agent rookie with the Tennessee Titans, and another man pulled a mother, her three children and their dog from their car as it burned on the side of a Tennessee highway Tuesday while driving to Titans training camp. ‘They’re my angels, they’re a Godsend, it was a miracle that they were there,’ Cheri Hubbard told Good Morning America.

[kuhio98]

GENESEE COUNTY, MI (WNEM) - A Genesee County woman is counting her blessings after she lost her wedding ring in a waterfall – only to have it returned by an upstanding citizen.

"And I go, ‘you're kidding me, oh my God no, you're kidding me'," said LeLonnie Alexander on the moment she was reunited with her wedding ring.

She lost it during a vacation in northern Michigan while at a waterfall, and figured it was gone for good. "I slipped and fell down into the water and I'm waving my hands back and forth … and all of a sudden the ring flies off and I said, ‘I lost my ring.'"

After a long search in the water, Alexander lost all hope of finding it. She notified the campground area police department and posted about her lost ring on social media. Several days later, she received a phone call.

"I got a call and they asked me to describe my ring because they thought somebody had found it," said Alexander.

A boy all the way from Nashville, TN, heard about what had happened. When his family visited the waterfall while on vacation, he decided to search for the ring himself.

"He heard about the story and went into the water with his little snorkel and his mask," explained Alexander.

And he found the $4,000 ring.

This week his family returned it to Alexander. She says she can't thank the boy enough for his honesty. "I get goose bumps because that little boy deserves every bit of praise that he can get," gushed Alexander.

Now the ring holder says she's doing whatever she can to make sure she doesn't lose her ring ever again. "This baby's getting insured and resized," said Alexander.

Alexander did give the boy a $200 reward for returning her ring.

[kuhio98]

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - For his 50th birthday, Steve Marshall wanted to do something special, but a cruise in the Caribbean or a vacation in Hawaii wasn't exactly what he had in mind. "When the family started asking, 'What do you want to do for your 50th?' I prayed about it and said I don't have any interest in having a party for myself, but how awesome would it be if I could find a family and spend the day honoring them?"

Instead, Marshall wanted to make a difference for someone in need of a little help and care.

Marshall said his friend, a pastor at a church in north Portland, helped him find Kimberely Dixon.

Dixon lost her husband two years ago and her son died in a gang shooting last month. Her granddaughter passed away from a typically treatable illness a few weeks ago.

Marshall and dozens of family and friends turned out to fix up Dixon's home.

"I've probably got about 75 to 100 people here today and I've had generous donations from businesses all over the place," he said. "It's become a bit of a home remodel, something far beyond what I ever expected."

"He started kind of marking out what he wanted to do. I was like, 'That's what you want to do?'" Dixon said. "And he did a walk through the house and here we are today, celebrating his birthday in this unique and different way."


Dixon, who has four children, said she hopes Marshall's decision will inspire people to make a difference in the lives of others, even if it's as simple as sharing a smile.

"To have somebody spearhead such joy is overwhelmingly amazing. And we as a family and hopefully as a community are so blessed by this effort," she said.

[kuhio98]

ELEPHANT LOSES LEG TO LANDMINE, VETERINARIANS COME TO HER RESCUE

Mosha the elephant lost her front right leg when she stepped on a landmine near the Thai-Myanmar border. Veterinarians were able to create an artificial leg for Mosha, and they have made a new one each time there's a change in her weight.

[kuhio98]

Little libraries popping up in City yards

It’s a reading program like any other. It has thousands of people across the nation building libraries right in their front yard and it’s picking up steam in the Quad Cities.

At every corner there’s a story ready to be told. At the corner of 8th and Green Park Avenue there are several stories, ready to be read.

Jen Roth has taken her love for reading and implemented a national reading program in Colona, Illinois.
“I thought it was a great idea, just because I’ve have so many books at home and I know many other people do, nobody likes to throw away a book,” said Roth.

It’s called the Little Free Library. http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/

How it works is simple, all you have to do is grab a book of your choice then leave one for others to enjoy.
“It makes me feel so good to know that we are doing something for the community that people are wanting to be involved in,” said Roth.

In Rock Island, you can find one outside of Deb Vanspeybroeck’s house.

“I don’t have any deep philosophical thought about it, I just thought I love books, I like being neighborly. It just seemed like a good combination,” said Vanspeybroeck.

She’s sharing her passion with her neighbors, because like life there’s no dead end when it comes to reading.
“I hope we still have books in our culture for a long long time,” said Vanspeybroeck.

Some Little Free Libraries are even popping up in Iowa, with a few in Eldridge.

[cassiesmom]

CHICAGO (CBS) – A Chicago man said Sears is lucky he’s honest; otherwise, the retailer could have exposed hundreds of its former employees to identity theft.

WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports, on Saturday, Hersey Mallory went to a liquidation sale at the Sears store in Chatham — which has since closed — and bought three file cabinets.

As he was loading them, he noticed something different about one of the cabinets.

“I couldn’t imagine why it would be so heavy,” he said.

When he opened the file cabinet, he found sensitive employment records — including bank information — for hundreds of fired and retired Sears employees.

“It shows their birth certificate, it shows their Social Security number, it shows how much they were being paid,” Mallory said. “In this day of identity theft, I’ve got all of these people’s whole Social Security numbers, whole addresses.”

He claimed he got the run-around when he called Sears, so he tried the human resources department.

“That was even worse, because we got some chick on there who started talking to me about ‘Well, I’m going to have to do an investigation,’” Mallory said. “I said ‘What are you talking about, doing an investigation? Come over here and get this stuff.’”

After going to the media, Mallory said Sears promised to pick up the records, and promised him a $100 gift certificate to thank him for his honesty.

Mallory said he didn’t want a reward, he did it because it was the right thing to do.

“It could have been somebody that I cared about, somebody that I knew. It just wouldn’t have been right,” he said.

[kuhio98]

FIREFIGHTER TIM DENEEN, 41
Digging deep for Jessy

Just that morning, last May 13, Tim Deneen's squad in the Wichita (Kans.) Fire Dept. had taken a special class on making rescues in confined spaces. Then at 7 p.m. the call came in: 17-month-old Jessy Kraus had tumbled into a well being dug in the backyard of his family's new home in nearby Mulvane. By the time Deneen and his technical rescue team arrived at 7:30, nearly two dozen rescue workers and neighbors were on the scene, and a local chemical company had set up a video camera to lower into the well—but that was not enough. "I saw that picture of his hand and this little head," Deneen, the father of two young girls and a firefighter since 1991, says of the video image. "I knew we had to get him."

Rescuers used a backhoe to dig a 20-ft.-deep pit next to the nearly 17-ft. well, then dug 7 ft. across to Jessy, who, by then exhausted, had fallen asleep. Deneen wedged himself into the 2-ft.-wide opening and grabbed the boy by the foot. "I asked him if he liked Barney," says Deneen. "And he said, 'No! No!' " Fifteen minutes later—five hours after the ordeal began—Deneen wrested the toddler from the pit, much to the relief of the boy's parents, Jerry Kraus, 30, and Karen, 28, who have another son, Cody, 8. (Karen was in the kitchen making dinner, and Jerry was with Jessy watering trees in the backyard when the toddler, walking toward him, tumbled into the well.) After a night in the hospital for observation, the little boy was released in the morning with just a minor bruise on his forehead and scratches on his elbow. "Thankfully it was one of those nights when everything worked like clockwork," says Deneen. "I could feel God all around."

[kuhio98]

Kindergartner sells lemonade to raise money to buy friend a diabetes alert dog

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. - A kindergartner spent Friday afternoon selling lemonade to raise money for a friend with diabetes.

Five-year-old Aidan Kendall hopes the proceeds from his lemonade stand will allow his friend, Jayce Berryman, to get a diabetes alert dog.

"I'm selling lemonade and donations for Jayce's dog that barks whenever his blood sugar is high or low," Aidan explained.

His mom, Shannon Kendall, said it was all Aidan's idea.

"At first I thought 'it's too cold, we can't do a lemonade stand right now, it's 30 degrees,' but you don't want to stop your child when they're so anxious to give," she said.

Jayce, who is also 5 years old, has type 1 diabetes. His mother, Lindsey Berryman, said she was touched by Aidan's efforts to raise money so they can get an alert dog.

"It leaves me speechless to know that we have friends that we haven't known that long, and that Jayce's friend at that who's in kindergarten, has a big enough heart to want to do something like this to help somebody else out," Berryman said.

For more information on how you can help, go to jaycesdiabeticalertdog.webs.com