Be All You Can Be - Play America's Army

Meet Paxton Galvanek, online gamer and hero: In November 2007, the twenty-eight year-old helped save two North Carolina accident victims from an out of control SUV that had rolled over about 5 times. As the first one on the scene, in fact, having watched as the accident happened, he managed to run across the highway, safely remove both people from the smoking SUV and properly assessed and treated their wounds, which included bruises, scrapes, head trauma and the loss of two fingers.

So what type of medical background did Galvanek have? None - unless you count hours playing the computer game America's Army. As a medic in the game, players must sit through extensive medical training sessions based on real-life classes - Galvanek managed to pay enough attention throughout and learn enough that he was able to 'triage' the patients on the scene, helping to first control the heavy bleeding caused by the missing fingers, and then go on to check out any other injuries while waiting for additional help which, ironically, came in the form of an Army medic.

Just goes to show that some online gaming and certain types of characters can really pay off in real life... According to the US Army, this is the 2nd time someone has been able to use the online medic training to help save lives in an emergency.

So even if you don't feel any need to join the real Army or to play war, but wouldn't mind having a bit of useful emergency medical training, check out the game for yourself at www.americasarmy.com Play and learn something valuable at the same time!