The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Chicago – USA

A teenage girl is safe at home thanks to the help of a stranger who didn’t hesitate to act when he saw the girl in trouble.

A 49-year-old North Center man was sitting on his front porch late Monday night when he says he saw a man pushing a beat-up Dodge van down the street with a young girl steering the wheel.

The man went over to help push the van. Once they steered it to a parking spot the Good Samaritan turned to go back home. That’s when he says the young girl jumped out of the van and ran to him, begging for help. She told him the man in the van had tried to rape her.

The Good Samaritan rushed her into his home before her alleged attacker even knew she was gone.

The man is now being called a hero. He didn’t want to be identified but he says he gives all the credit to the teenage girl.

23-year-old Richard Velasco left to go get gasoline for his van and when he returned a short time later, police were there to arrest him. He is being held on $300,000 bail charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse and attempted criminal sexual assault.

The girl apparently told the man who helped her that she knew Velasco because he was a friend of her family. She said she thought she would be safe with him. The Good Samaritan had a chance to meet the girl’s mother at the police station.

He said she thanked him and said she was very grateful that he rescued her daughter.

[kuhio98]

POLICEMAN ERICH KESSINGER, 29
The right call saves a life

It was supposed to be a birthday celebration—a night of barhopping just after the stroke of midnight Aug. 24, when Kristine Lurowist would officially turn 21. In honor of the occasion, the Penn State University senior consumed 21 shots of booze—one for each year. Fortunately, by the time Lurowist staggered out of her last State College saloon that night, officer Erich Kessinger was on routine duty nearby. "I watched her go from stumbling and staggering to being held up by a guy on each arm to the point where her legs started to drag," says Kessinger. When he approached to help, Lurowist's companions put up a stink. "They said, 'She's 21. We're legal. Get out of here, cop,' " he recalls. Over her friends' initial protests, he called an ambulance. By the time it arrived she was unconscious. When he learned later that night that her blood-alcohol level was an astonishing. 682—more than six times the legal limit for driving—"I never envisioned that she was going to pull through," he says. In fact, she survived only because she was placed on emergency dialysis. In a letter to the local Centre Daily Times, Lurowist thanked Kessinger and wrote, "I am doing fine and am eager to make up the class work missed and pursue my studies." More gratifying were her personal thanks; when Kessinger visited Lurowist the next day in the hospital, she greeted him as the man who saved her life. "It's not like I took a bullet," says Kessinger. "But for someone to say that, well, that makes a career."

[kuhio98]

Man reunites with truck driver who saved his life (Indiana USA)

It was a night like any other along Interstate 65, as truck driver Adam Phillips followed the same route he takes every day. Instead, though, Phillips found himself face-to-face with a terrible car accident and a driver who needed help.

“Right about the time I got around the front of my truck, I could hear him screaming,” Phillips said.

Anthony Ingle’s car had hit a slick spot, spun off the road and slammed into a bridge. Ingle was trapped inside, pinned to the dashboard, as his car caught fire.
“I just kept thinking, ‘I’ve gotta get this kid out of here before it kills him,’” Phillips said.

It took Phillips and several other truck drivers, armed with fire extinguishers and a pry bar, to get Ingle out before the car went completely up in flames.
“I jumped up, grabbed him by the arm and yanked him out of the car,” Phillips said.

Phillips also gave Ingle his jacket, covering him with it as emergency crews arrived. He got back in his truck and drove away, leaving the jacket behind.
A week later, Fox59 spoke to Ingle in his hospital bed. He was hoping to find the owner of the jacket to thank him for his life-saving efforts.
The two got a chance to meet Monday, with Ingle handing over the jacket and thanking Phillips in person.
“I wouldn’t be here right now (without him),” Ingle said.

Phillips hopes other drivers will think about putting an emergency kit and fire extinguisher in their own car, so that if you happen upon an accident you have the tools to help, too. He doesn’t consider himself a hero, just someone who stepped up when it was needed.
“He alive, that’s all I care about,” Phillips said.

Ingle is out of the hospital and in rehabilitation. He’s hoping to get back to work soon.

[kuhio98]

Owner Invents Suit to Keep Her Blind Dog from Running Into Things

[kuhio98]

How a Dog's Blood Saved a Poisoned Cat

There's no furry rivalry here. When New Zealand resident Kim Edwards realized her cat Rory had ingested rat poison last week, she turned to a risky paws-ibility to save her pet's life: dog blood.

After bringing Rory to her local veterinary clinic, Edwards was informed the cat needed an immediate blood transfusion to save its life. With not enough time to send a blood sample to the lab to determine Rory's blood type, Edwards called upon her friend Michelle Whitmore for help.

The vet retrieved blood from Whitmore's black Labrador retriever, Macy. The risk at hand: Giving Rory the wrong blood type would lead to instant death.

"People are going to think it sounds pretty dodgy – and it is – but hey, we've been successful and it's saved its life," tending vet Kate Heller tells The New Zealand Herald.

Following the procedure, Rory appears to have bounced back with no further damage and has yet to show any side effects.

"Rory is back to normal," Edwards confirmed, adding jokingly, "and we don't have a cat that barks or fetches the paper."

[kuhio98]

[kuhio98]

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENT AUSTIN PAYNE, 8
With his principal in trouble, he applies a big squeeze

Bantering in the cafeteria last month with students at Northridge Elementary School in Oklahoma City, principal Ron Christy noticed a child wasn't eating his Tater Tots. So he asked for one. Then another. Christy's chatting and chewing prompted a pupil to wonder aloud if his mother hadn't told him not to talk with his mouth full. Too late. By now, Christy, 50, was in distress, a Tater Tot stuck in his throat. "I looked around for another adult," says Christy, whose face was turning blue, "and saw only a roomful of children."

With the other students oblivious, Austin Payne sprang into action. Rushing behind Christy, he wrapped his arms around the principal and gave a sudden squeeze, performing the Heimlich maneuver his father, Charley, 30, had taught him last year. Out popped the Tater Tot. A whirlwind of attention has since come the third-grader's way, including a visit to Late Show with David Letter-man. But the straight-A student and budding right fielder is most impressed by the Thank You pin Christy gave him. "He told me he thought he was going to die," says Austin, "and that he was real proud of me."