Perspective: Cheating death has its price

In Vietnam, most troops with burns beyond 20 percent died from infection. Now, patients with more than 90 percent coverage can survive, if treated in a few days. But the minute-by-minute pain can endure a lifetime.

With his life in the balance and a clear solution of plasma and morphine coursing into his badly burned body, Chris Edwards had a choice.

Did he want to save his wedding band, or his finger?

Edwards lay hospitalized in Baghdad, gravely injured by a roadside bomb. Whether he'd live or die was a matter of fate. His body was blotchy red from the burns on nearly 80 percent of his body. But he didn't want to lose his wedding ring.

"Don't cut it," he said weakly.

Read the rest at the Express News