Joseph M. Healey acted to save two children from being struck by a boat, Lake Havasu City, Arizona, July 17, 2009. The children, ages 6 and 4, were playing in the water of a cove along Lake Havasu, just behind a friend’s boat that extended partially onto the beach. A larger boat that had been beached nearby began to drift backward toward them, its engines running. Healey, 38, cardiac monitor technician, and others on the friend’s boat saw the larger boat approaching and shouted to that boat’s operator to warn him. As the larger boat closed in on the children, Healey jumped into the water to get them out of the way. The boat struck Healey, badly injuring his right leg with its propeller, and then struck the friend’s boat before its operator took control of it. The children escaped to safety. Healey required a week’s hospitalization, during which the lower part of his injured leg was amputated.
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