Missing 3-year-old boy found alive

ST. LOUIS (AP/KMOV) -- A 3-year-old southeast Missouri boy missing for more than two days was found alive Wednesday afternoon three miles from his rural home.

A volunteer found Joshua Childers in the rugged terrain of the Mark Twain National Forest, Madison County Sheriff David Lewis said. The boy had slipped out of his house more than 50 hours earlier, wearing a T-shirt, sneakers and a pull-up diaper.

Joshua was taken to the Iron County Hospital in Pilot Knob at 4:42 p.m. for evaluation in the emergency room. Hospital CEO Ed Gast said the initial assessment was that the boy was in fair condition. Joshua was later transferred around 11 p.m. to Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Crystal City for further evaluation.

"The parents would like to thank everyone who has assisted in the search and treatment of Joshua and they ask that their privacy be protected at this time," Gast said.

Joshua wandered away about 11:30 a.m. Monday from his parents' home near the small, secluded town of Arcadia, about 100 miles southwest of St. Louis. The couple searched for about 45 minutes before calling police, setting off a massive search that lasted through the night and into Tuesday and Wednesday.

So many citizens wanted to help find the 35-pound boy that willing individuals were held back at the staging area, Lewis said.

"Today we brought in professional rescue people," he said. "We tried to cover everything again and widened the scope."

They searched the area by land grids and water, with dogs, divers and sonar equipment. Rain and cool temperatures worsened search conditions.

Sometime after 4 p.m. local time, the boy was found in a hollow, a creek bottom area off State Highway D, three miles from his home. He was immediately taken to the hospital, Lewis said.

He described the Mark Twain National Forest as "really rough country," consisting of steep ravines, creeks and rugged rocks.

"I'm so happy, you can't believe it," Lewis said. "I'm going to go home and take a shower and go to bed."

On Monday evening a searcher found a tennis shoe that the boy's parents confirmed he was wearing when he slipped away from home.

Lewis said the shoe was found nearly a mile from the family's mobile home in the forest.

Joshua's father works an overnight shift and was home sleeping late Monday morning. His mother was watching the child but was briefly distracted. That's when the boy got out, wearing a dark blue and green T-shirt, a pull-up diaper and tennis shoes.

Police arrived and put out a call for volunteers. Hundreds showed up -- some on horses, some on donkeys, some on all-terrain vehicles or with their own dogs to help.

"how could a 35-pound child stay alive in 40-degree weather in the rain for two nights and three days?"

Hastings College student makes a miracle recovery

By Katie Ferrell - Every year around 37,000 people are killed in car crashes.

A Hastings College student came close to becoming part of that statistic.

He crashed his car earlier this year...ending up in a coma.

Tonight in your family healthcast...News 5's Katie Ferrell tells us about his recovery and why his parents are calling it a miracle.

This is 22 year old Jason Kort a little less than 3 months ago.

"He had 6 broken ribs on his left side, his left lung was completely collapsed and his right one was deflating at that time, severe head trauma,” said Mike Kort, Jason’s dad.

A car accident on February 1st left him in a coma with a traumatic brain injury. Doctors feared he may never wake up and had little hope for a full recovery.

"We had no clue how long he would be in a coma like that. They told us it could be 3 months, it could be 6 months, he could never wake up,” said Mike.

But, this is Jason now.

A miraculous comeback his parents or doctors can not explain...After 10 days in a coma, Jason opened his eyes.

"To be honest I think I broke down and cried."

He spent 5 more weeks at 2 Lincoln Hospitals.

He has no memory of why he crashed or even most of his time in the hospital.

"I do not really remember what I did the day of the accident, I do not remember that too well,” said Jason Kort.

His only memory...a day his parents and doctors did not know he would see.

"I would say the best memory I have of being in the hospital was on my birthday, I was in the hospital for my 22nd birthday so I can remember that day."

The only physical reminders of the accident are not from the accident at all. A blood clot forced doctors to remove part of his thumb, an allergic reaction caused a slight burn on his arm and where a breathing tube once was, a small scar.

Jason calls himself lucky and said he is looking toward the future.

"Just getting back to using my hand would be the main thing and getting back the use of my thumb would be another,” said Jason.

Jason's Dr. tells the family he has no medical answers for how he has recovered so fully and quickly.

Jason's dad has his own theory.

"I looked at him and I pointed up to the heavens that was my answer... It is a miracle that is how I look at it,” said Mike.

Mike said a Lincoln nurse told him she had never seen a patient with so many visitors.

The Kort's said they attribute Jason's recovery to the prayer's and support of their family, friends and community.

Jason has only 2 weeks left of therapy in Lincoln.

He plans to go back to college in Hastings this Summer.

Good timing provided chopper that rescued boy

An eight-year-old boy’s against-all-odds survival is being credited in part to some very fortunate timing.

Samuel Gross was submerged in nearly freezing water for 20 minutes about two weeks ago before he was pulled out by a relative. He was then airlifted to a Winnipeg hospital by a helicopter ambulance not normally available in Manitoba.

The boy had become caught in a culvert on the Westrock Hutterite Colony near Portage la Prairie, Man., 100 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

The high-tech chopper that took him to hospital was only in the province because the government had been leasing it from Alberta to help fight flooding. Ontario, British Columbia and Nova Scotia are the only other jurisdictions with at least one air ambulance.

The helicopter’s ability to move Samuel quickly has made an impression on the government, which had already been considering whether to acquire choppers for medical emergencies.

"This particular incident shows how the helicopter can fit within the actual emergency response system . . . it certainly illustrates that there was a benefit there," Bernadette Preun, assistant deputy minister for health emergency services, said Friday.

Doctors at the hospital kept his body chilled for two days to prevent brain inflammation before slowly warming Samuel back up. After a tense first night in hospital, with doctors fighting to clear stomach contents from his lungs, the boy's vital signs appeared strong. But nobody could determine if his brain had been deprived of oxygen long enough to cause brain damage. His family prayed and sang religious songs around his hospital bed.

On Wednesday, he woke up and was able to recite his name, birth date and father's cellphone number. His family called it a miracle.

Sam's arm still aches - he injured it while being sucked through the culvert - but his father says he's eager to leave the hospital. "Day by day, he will get better," said Mr. Gross. "A couple of weeks maybe and he will go home."

At the Westroc colony yesterday, residents had grown weary of the media attention Sam's story had brought. Barraged with media calls, many said they would no longer answer questions.

The survival of an 8-year-old Canadian boy who was submerged in icy water for 20 minutes and awoke from a 13-day coma "is remarkable," a doctor said.

Abruzzo Earthquake 'Miracle'

On the Monday of Holy Week the Abruzzo region of Central Italy was hit by its most devastating earthquake in 30 years, measuring a magnitude of 6.3 and claiming almost 300 lives. Amidst the wreckage, however, there emerged a sign of hope.

It happened in Rocca di Cambio, the highest mountain village in the Gran Sasso Mountains of Abruzzo. There, in the church of San Pietro alla Collegiata, a fresco of the Virgin Mother and infant Jesus was discovered.

The fresco appeared when the earthquake shook the church and the altar came away from wall. Experts believe the artwork is from the 11th Century at the time the church was built.

Antonio Pace, the mayor of Rocca di Cambio, told the London times, “When we went in to check the damage we saw that the altar had moved, and behind the fallen plaster was the fresco. There was tremendous excitement, as you can imagine.”

“This is wonderful news at a time of so much destruction and sorrow,” Pace went on to say. “The appearance of the Madonna and Child is a sign of hope. Nothing short of a miracle.”

A survivor's miracle in the rubble

TERAMO, Italy (CNN) -- The father of a 20-year-old student, one of the last to be pulled alive from the rubble says it could only have been a miracle that saved his daughter.

Luigi Calesini says when he arrived at his daughter Eleonora's university dorm most of the building had already collapsed on itself.

He says he thought it was a lost cause because his daughter lived on the ground floor.

"We waited and waited, and they were only pulling out dead bodies. Then we heard they pulled a woman out so we ran to see and it was Eleonora. We spoke to her and she recognized us but then they took her to the field hospital" said Calesini from the hospital where his daughter is now being treated.

"She was conscious, but then they took her away from me and now I'm afraid they won't give her back to me," he added.

Eleonora is said to be in a serious but stable condition and the hospital is being very guarded about her prognosis.

"The first thing she asked was what time it was and then she asked for some food" said Luciano Roncalli, a rescue team leader who helped pull Eleonora out from hundreds of tons of rubble and debris Wednesday.

"Our task is to save lives and that means everything to us" says Roncalli.

For days now though there has been precious little good news from rescue sites.

As many as a dozen people could still be missing and Italian authorities say they will continue to work at it until at least Sunday.

Even now, rescuers say they are finding what could be signs of life on some sites and continue to dig by hand to remove rubble.

In some ways this tragedy will be most remembered for the desperate vigil kept by parents after two university dorms collapsed.

Tensions were high on rescue sites for several days as parents lived the agony of seeing the collapsed buildings teeter and rescue teams hampered by strong aftershocks.

And many witnessing the destruction question why modern buildings should have collapsed at all.

"It doesn't help to fester about why this happened, I don't know if the building was built properly," says Calesini adding, "what I do know is that this is a miracle and I want it to stay that way."

Child caught after falling three stories

At 6:30 last night, Robert Lemire was chatting on his cell phone, talking about coaching his daughter's softball team this spring.
But when he looked across the street, Lemire quickly realized someone else's daughter was going to need his help first.
A child was dangling out of a third-story window at 700 Haverhill St., and Lemire, without thinking about his own safety, bolted across the busy street to help the toddler. Then, with help from Alex Day, another Good Samaritan, the two men caught 11/2-year-old Caliah Clark as she fell about 40 feet into their waiting arms.
"I've only seen something like that on TV," said Lemire, a Methuen father of two girls, ages 13 and 16.
Police last night credited the hustle of the two men with saving the girl as she hung from the apartment window.
"The quick response, the calls for help. These guys are heroes, no question about it," said police Chief John Romero.
The girl was taken to Lawrence General Hospital for evaluation, but police don't believe she suffered any serious injuries. As required by law, the Department of Social Services was immediately notified about the accident and is expected to investigate.
"She's lucky. Everybody is lucky," said Lemire, 45, a remodeling contractor.
Lemire said he had stopped on Haverhill Street and was going to order supper from a nearby pizza joint. As he was chatting outside on his cell phone, the first thing he noticed, as he looked across the street, were toys being thrown out of the apartment at 700 Haverhill St., a large Victorian-style home.
Then, he saw the third-floor window was wide open and a little girl was hanging outside. Two other kids were holding onto her by her arms as she dangled outside the window.
Lemire said he bolted across busy Haverhill Street, nearly getting hit by a car. He yelled for help.
Day, 23, who was attending a Bible study meeting inside 700 Haverhill St., heard someone yelling outside and fearing a fire had ignited, he jumped up to see what was going on.
He soon met Lemire, who pointed to the side of the house "where there was a child hanging out the window," Day told police.
Lemire "was just going frantic trying to get her," Day said last night.
Both men ran around the house and stood underneath Caliah, who suddenly fell into their arms. Day caught the top of her body, while Lemire grabbed the lower half.
"As soon as I told him what was happening, we both looked up and there she came," Lemire said.
When Lemire dialed 911 for help, he said his "fingers were numb."
Day then went upstairs and spoke to the child's father, Randall Clark, 27, and expressed "his disappointment as to what had just occurred," according to a police report. Clark told police he was caring for a newborn child in the apartment's bathroom when he heard a commotion outside. When he went to see what the kids were doing, he found his two oldest children near the "wide open window," the police report said.
"He then reported not seeing the 11/2 year old anywhere in the room and felt like something had gone wrong. He ran down to the second floor where he was met by Alex Day with his child in his hand," the report said.
The window is close to the floor and can be easily opened. There was no screen in the window, Patrolman Rhadames Gonzalez noted in his report.
The city's Inspectional Services division was also notified about the window. Lemire said he was just happy the evening had a happy ending.
"Thank God," he said.
Day agreed, describing the event as "absolutely incredible."
"She was so small, she would have really been hurt," he said. "It was pretty amazing when I look back on the whole thing."

The shot that saved lives

One year ago Mykal Riley sank a three that kept fans out of the path of a tornado. But Riley would never have been there if not for an intricate web of chance meetings, false starts and a terrible crime.

THE CLOCK STARTS WHEN THE SHOOTER CATCHES the ball, on the left wing, 24 feet from the basket. Two seconds left. He has run off a screen from the baseline, so his momentum carries him toward midcourt. He pushes hard off his right foot and pivots back to the left. One-point-four seconds. When he rises off the floor, the force of this hard cut is still carrying him left. One second. He believes Jesus will guide this shot.

The shooter flicks his right wrist at the peak of his jump, and if you photographed him now, you could put it in a textbook. Eight tenths of a second. The ball is still airborne when time expires and the horn sounds. The shot is almost perfect. But the shooter was drifting left, as you recall, and the ball lands just left of the target. It hits the back of the rim, the boxy part with the springs, and the springs rattle. The ball caroms from back rim to front, seeming to gain speed as it goes, and it suddenly leaps out of the cylinder.

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God. The shooter believes this because his King James Bible says so, and because of what he has seen, and soon he will believe it more deeply than ever. The ball sails toward the backboard, hits the center of the white square, and falls through the net.

This shot does nothing to change the game's outcome. And yet, for pure utility, it may be as great as any play in the history of sports. Eight minutes later, on the evening of March 14, 2008, during this Southeastern Conference tournament game between Alabama and Mississippi State, a tornado will roar through downtown Atlanta, and high winds will breach the Georgia Dome, and metal will strike the hardwood, and players will flee for cover, and it will seem to be snowing indoors. By morning Mykal Riley's three-pointer will be known as The Shot That Saved Lives.

Outside, the tornado passes just north of the Dome and screams through Centennial Olympic Park with winds of 120 mph. Glass rains down from hundreds of broken windows. Siding is ripped from the Dome's exterior. Potted plants go flying. Metal is driven into the side of a covered walkway. Cars flip over. Two 65-foot light towers topple in the park.

To the east, near a neighborhood called Cabbagetown, a homeless man is killed by a collapsing brick wall. But no serious injuries are reported downtown because the thunderstorm that came before the tornado has driven almost everyone off the streets, and 14,825 are safe inside the Dome, watching the overtime forced by Mykal Riley.

There is no way to prove that his shot saved lives. We can know only what did happen, and what didn't. Nevertheless, all the people interviewed for this story about their experience in the Dome that night believe that Mykal's shot prevented injuries and even deaths.

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1153064/index.htm

Miracle on the Hudson

No one ever landed a plane that large on a body of water let alone on a fast river.

"The left engine just blew. Fire, flames were coming out of it and I was looking at it because I was sitting right there. And it just started smelling like gasoline," a passenger told WNBC. "...Everyone started, to be honest, to say prayers."

All of the passengers survived, according to initial reports thanks to the expertise, bravery and cool of the pilot, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, a hero whose calm saved 155 people, including a little baby, from an icy and fiery death in what could only be called a miracle.

"It looks like a miraculous rescue underway," Bill White of the nearby Intrepid Museum told reporters. "It was an extraordinary rescue effort."

Ferry passengers who happened to be on the Hudson at the time of the crash jumped into action.

“We just started taking people from the wing and the inflatable rafts,” said Janis Krums who was riding on one of the first boats to arrive and rescue the passengers. “And we just started giving them clothes and keeping them warm… in less than six or seven minutes we just had five or six boats helping.”

Stunned passengers struggled to describe the harrowing experience.


“I don't even know how to put it into words right now," Alberto Panero told CNN. "I actually grabbed one of the seats; that was the first thing that came to my mind. Some people grabbed the inflatable one. Immediately there were folks coming to us and throwing life jackets to us and helping us get to safety."

"There were a couple of people who took charge and started yelling for everyone to calm down," Panero said. "Once everyone realized we were going to be OK, they settled down."

Along the bank of the Hudson, eyewitnesses could not believe their eyes: a plane was flying impossibly low yet steady as can be. It was as if the pilot was approaching a runway, not the icy winter waters of Manhattan’s Hudson River.

“I saw a plane coming down the Hudson in very controlled fashion but much much lower than it should be,” Christian Martin told MSNBC. “It was really just a remarkable job … It could not appear more controlled or smooth as the pilot touched down in the water.”

Are there Miracles?

I was talking with my friend Mark about an explosion at CTA Acoustics. Two workers saw the fireball coming at them. Then about 10 feet away it stopped. Mark said the explosion which killed 6 people ran out of fuel. The two workers thought it was the Hand of God.

Mark and I investigated a quadruple fatality at Buffalo rock in the late 1980's It occurred when an ammo loading machine misfired and caused a small bang. The bang shook the dust off the rafters and then it the larger second explosion killed four of the eight workers. I interview two workers who didn't make it in. One was caring for a sick kid and had no backup and the other couldn't get his car started. Both had great attendance. Why did they not make it in?

In 1995, a worker took off his safety harness in Algoquin IL on the water tower. He fell 110 feet into small pile of sand. No injuries. 100 people could do that and be dead or crippled.

This blog is just my attempt to record some of these events.