thedrifter
04-26-08, 06:30 AM
Retired Marine saves life of friend, Leatherneck brother
Published Fri, Apr 25, 2008 12:00 AM
By IAN LESLIE
ileslie@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5527
Two men who served in the Marine Corps together more than 30 years ago now are linked by much more than the typical circumstances that connect Leathernecks as a band of brothers.
On Thursday, Charles Funk saved Charles Flowers' life.
The two were stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in 1977 as members of the Checkerboards squadron. Funk was a sergeant and Flowers was his staff sergeant.
Thirty-one years later, the two are back at the air station working with private contractor DynCorp, repairing and checking equipment when squadrons come home from deployments.
At about noon Thursday, the 60-year-old Flowers had a heart attack and collapsed in an air station bay.
"He was unresponsive, but he was gasping for breath," Funk, 57, said Friday. "We were trying to get him comfortable."
But after a couple of minutes Flowers stopped breathing and no longer had a pulse.
"I was right there leaning over him and started chest compressions on him," said Funk, who's also a reserve officer with the Beaufort Police Department.
Funk, who retired from the Corps as a sergeant major, has been certified in CPR in the past and at one point was an instructor. But this was the first time he'd actually had to perform CPR on anyone other than a dummy.
"It seemed like a long time, but it probably really wasn't that long," Funk said of having to perform CPR.
Paramedics took Flowers to St. Joseph's/Candler Health System in Savannah where he's in critical condition in the hospital's coronary care unit.
Flowers' wife, Barbara, saidher husband is "improving quite a bit," though doctors are keeping him sedated and unconscious.
"From the bottom of our hearts we thank (Funk) so much," she said.
Ellie
Published Fri, Apr 25, 2008 12:00 AM
By IAN LESLIE
ileslie@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5527
Two men who served in the Marine Corps together more than 30 years ago now are linked by much more than the typical circumstances that connect Leathernecks as a band of brothers.
On Thursday, Charles Funk saved Charles Flowers' life.
The two were stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in 1977 as members of the Checkerboards squadron. Funk was a sergeant and Flowers was his staff sergeant.
Thirty-one years later, the two are back at the air station working with private contractor DynCorp, repairing and checking equipment when squadrons come home from deployments.
At about noon Thursday, the 60-year-old Flowers had a heart attack and collapsed in an air station bay.
"He was unresponsive, but he was gasping for breath," Funk, 57, said Friday. "We were trying to get him comfortable."
But after a couple of minutes Flowers stopped breathing and no longer had a pulse.
"I was right there leaning over him and started chest compressions on him," said Funk, who's also a reserve officer with the Beaufort Police Department.
Funk, who retired from the Corps as a sergeant major, has been certified in CPR in the past and at one point was an instructor. But this was the first time he'd actually had to perform CPR on anyone other than a dummy.
"It seemed like a long time, but it probably really wasn't that long," Funk said of having to perform CPR.
Paramedics took Flowers to St. Joseph's/Candler Health System in Savannah where he's in critical condition in the hospital's coronary care unit.
Flowers' wife, Barbara, saidher husband is "improving quite a bit," though doctors are keeping him sedated and unconscious.
"From the bottom of our hearts we thank (Funk) so much," she said.
Ellie