I found this CBS story to be truly amazing. Dave Hartsock is a skydiving instructor who jumped in tandem with Shirley Dygert of Teague, Texas. When their first chute failed to open and the second chute became tangled, Hartsock positioned himself under Dygert to break her fall. They both survived but Hartsock is paralyzed for life.
Dygert is a 54-year-old grandmother of three who wanted to celebrate her birthday in style with a jump from 13,000 feet.
When they were moving at 40 mph and only 500 feet from the ground, Hartsock rotated their position to take the hit in a bid to save Dygert’s life. It worked and this guy is one amazing hero.
Donations can be made at this site.
For the full story, click here.
This is a good human interest story. Wow.
Holy Crap! An amazing story, but I can’t believe that either of them lived!
I’m with raff.
32 ft./sec.^2 is a harsh mistress.
and to cheer her up this is what he said to Shirley when she went to visit him…
“We’re accident-proof now, baby. I mean what are the odds of something like that happening twice?”
can you imagine!!!
As a nurse I have had the privledge of meeting many courageous people in my day, this mans spirit is a joy. I would love to meet him.
He would be an interesting guy to talk to.
Imagine the hell he’d be in if he’d tried to save himself and shoved her underneath him to be the only survivor. Left alive but the rest of his days darkened by a guilty conscience relentlessly torturing his thoughts. Choosing the selfless act as Option A he saved his own life in quality and quantity.
The spirit of Flight 93 lives
And I thought heroes ascended to the heavens and not the other way ’round. Imagine that!
HIDFLECT:
interesting thought, but if you think about it the way to land to protect yourself would be to have him be on the bottom with his back taking the impact. It would spread the load of impact out and it probably saved his life as well. He would have probably broken his neck on her head. His motive may have been selfless but he made the right call from a purely physics/mechanical standpoint. As evidenced by the outcome.
David is a friend if mine and I am extremely proud to know him. His sacrifice Is truely heroic, but you wouldn’t know it to talk to him. He was in pretty bad shape after the accident but his progress and his attitude are amazing. He has been very touched by all te comments made on the charity website the was created to help fun his home health care. Please take time to check it out http://www.giveforward.org/Hartsock/ As David always says. “blue skies”