SAVING SAM
No one expected this Afghan boy to survive after an IED shredded his legs and torso. Bit by bit, the hospital's healers pieced the little boy back together. Along the way, they grew deeply attached.
No one expected this Afghan boy to survive after an IED shredded his legs and torso. Bit by bit, the hospital's healers pieced the little boy back together. Along the way, they grew deeply attached.
Army Spc. Nick Ganey, left, talks with his buddy, Cpl. John Aycock, after an IED flipped their 15-ton armored vehicle upside down. Ganey spent more than an hour trapped underneath in the turret. He suffered burns to his arm, legs and torso.
Spc. Nick Ganey calls home to tell his family that he's been injured and he's leaving Afghanistan. His nurse, Lt. Katie May, keeps an eye on him.
A few hours after he arrived at the hospital, Spc. Nick Ganey, in the wheelchair, began asking if he could have a cigarette. Ganey had to persuade his nurse, Lt. Katie May, in purple. Here, Ganey's best friend, Pfc. Jacob Southern, wheels him outside for a smoke. Both soldiers are with the 10th Mountain Division.
Spc. Nick Ganey puffs his cigarette outside the hospital a few hours after his arrival. His best friend, Pfc. Jacob Southern, right, wheeled him out. Since deploying to Afghanistan, the two have rarely been apart. Southern was injured in the IED blast, too, though less seriously. In the immediate aftermath, Ganey thought Southern had been killed. At left is corpsman Matthew Atkinson.
Spc. Nick Ganey examines his Purple Heart, awarded bedside the same day he survived an IED blast that left him with burns on his arm, legs and torso.
In their few quiet moments, members of the staff seek rest and distraction.
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