Carolyn Wanken, D.C.

"Tidbit of Health"

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GCunninghamTodays tidbit of health!

Gasoline Explosion Kills 9-Year-Old Farm Boy, Leaves 7-Year-Old Brother Crippled—Amputation Feared.

It was a bitterly cold in rural Kansas on February day in 1916. That's when 2 young boys went early to start the stove to warm the schoolhouse before the teacher and students arrived.

But someone had filled the kerosene can with gasoline, and the boys didn't know it. So they soaked the logs as they usually did, to help the fire along.

And instead of burning slowly, there was
a violent explosion when they lit the stove.

Nine-year-old Floyd was engulfed by flames and died soon after. His 7-year-old brother Glenn, was horribly burned on the lower half of his body. Glenn was unconscious for hours but miraculously, he lived.

The doctors thought amputation would be best since Glenn would surely never walk again. He'd lost all the toes on his left foot and the arch was nearly destroyed. The right leg was misshapen, 2 inches shorter, and both were badly scarred.

But Glenn's mother didn't let them amputate—and that made all the difference.

Because 2 years later, after hundreds of hours of excruciating stretching and rubbing to try to get life back into his legs—one day Glenn's mother found him up and out of his wheelchair and dragging himself, hand over hand along the fence, trying to get his legs to work.

An Honest-to-Goodness MIRACLE!

And gradually, to the amazement of the doctors, Glenn Cunningham's legs came alive. Actually, he found that walking was more painful than running—a sort of fast, hop/shuffle—didn't hurt as much.

So Glenn ran everywhere! He said,

"I didn't go more 10 feet without breaking into a run. I ran and ran and ran."

Eventually, Cunningham joined the high school track team and became a world- class "miler".

In fact, in the last race of his senior year, he set the national record for the mile.

Then he went on to set college, national and even world records in the mile. His story is incredible and inspirational.

And there's more. After retiring from his celebrated running career, Glenn and his wife started the Glenn Cunningham Youth Ranch in Kansas, that went on to help raise 10,000 underprivileged kids!