Soldier On The Mend

Soldier who lost legs in Afghanistan bomb attack recovering in Edmonton

Master Cpl. Paul Franklin credits a plastic hula-girl good-luck charm, hard training and a promise to his wife to come home alive for helping him survive a suicide bomb explosion in Afghanistan that cost him both his legs.

In his first interview since the Jan. 15 attack, a remarkably upbeat Franklin recounted the nightmarish blast that caused him indescribable pain and put his wife and young son on an emotional roller-coaster.

Franklin, a medic with 1 Field Ambulance, remembers watching a taxi hit the armoured jeep he was driving that day near Kandahar and then flying through the air after it exploded.

When he landed, he began rubbing his upper body to extinguish flames that were burning his face and hair.

Then Franklin looked down and noticed one of his legs was missing and his lifeblood was gushing away.

"My buddy all of sudden showed up and put his hands on my shoulder, Cpl. Jake Petton," Franklin said as he calmly sat in a wheelchair at Edmonton Garrison with his wife Audra looking on.

"He placed a tourniquet on my leg. The funny thing is three days earlier I had given him a brand-new tourniquet and trained him on it.

'It is kind of funny that nearly three days later there he is, putting it on me to save my life." More @ CP