In tonight's Living Well with a Disability, we introduce you to an American hero.
Not only for his extraordniary accomplishments in the Viet Nam War, but also what he has managed to do since the war.
Dennis Haines was drafted to Viet Nam in 1967 at the age of 18.
Just one year later, December 6, 1968, while on patrol near a Viet Cong sympathy village, Dennis was shot twice in the head by an AK 47.
"The next thing I remember was my buddy John craddling me, telling me how proud he was of me. How Gail, my fiance, would be proud of me and that I really did good," Dennis recalls from the moments after he was shot.
Today, nearly 40 years later, Dennis still goes to physical therapy to help with the paralysis on the left side of his body and the partial blindness in both eyes.
However, his disability has never slowed him down.
Dennis went on to work as a Project Coordinator for Hershey Medical Center retiring after 32 years. He also volunteers twice week at the Lebanon VA Hospital helping Veterans just like himself.
However, this is just the beginning of a truly miraculous story.
Dennis and the surgeon who, against all odds, managed to save his life in Viet Nam, found one another. It was a chance meeting that has since developed into a bond like no other.
See their story, "Images of Bravery" on Veterans Day, November 11, on CBS 21 News at 11.
