Live Grenade Pulled From Marine's Leg

Video shows risky procedure to pull explosive from soldier
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 5, 2012 9:48 AM CDT

It's the very definition of amazing rescues: During a Taliban attack on US forces in January, Marine Lance Corporal Winder Perez was left was a daunting injury—a live explosive was wedged in his leg, reports ABC News. All four members of the medevac team that responded had to unanimously agree to let Perez on the helicopter that would take him to a field hospital with the unexploded grenade in him ... which they did, though not without trepidation.

The two troops tending to him during the 65-mile flight wouldn't have survived the shrapnel that would have resulted from an explosion of the foot-long remnant of a rocket propelled grenade, and just about "18 inches behind where the patient is lying is over 300 gallons of jet aviation fuel, and it would have been catastrophic," said Capt. Kevin Doo. Upon arriving at the field hospital, Perez was tended to outside until an explosives expert wrenched the RPG from his leg. Perez is currently hospitalized at Walter Reed. (More Afghanistan stories.)

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