Ronald Louis Sancho saved Charles E. Dixon from suffocation, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, April 11, 1986. Dixon, 32, was driving a tanker truck carrying more than 5,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid when it was involved in a highway accident. The truck overturned, and the acid leaked from the tanker and formed a cloud of noxious vapor. Thrown from the truck, Dixon, his pelvis broken, lay in the vapor cloud. Sancho, 20, college student, came upon the scene and, entering the vapor, went to the cab of the truck to look for Dixon. Hearing Dixon moan, Sancho further penetrated the vapor cloud, which irritated his eyes and lungs and precluded visibility. He found Dixon, and, although Dixon outweighed him, he picked him up and carried him out of the cloud. Dixon required hospitalization for his injuries, and Sancho suffered inflammation of the membranes of his eyes, lungs, and pharynx. He recovered.
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