Spectators at a children's triathlon in Florida were brought to tears by
the sight of Marines carrying a little boy with a broken prosthetic leg
across the finish line.
Bone cancer-survivor Ben Baltz, 11, was participating in his third
triathlon of the summer when he had an accident with his prosthetic leg
Sunday during the final portion of the race.
"The screws came loose and it fell off and the Marine picked me up and
he ran the rest of the way," Ben said. "It was pretty nice."
His mother, Kim Baltz, was waiting at the finish line and wondering
where he son was when she heard the announcer say, "Turn around and look
at what's happening on the course."
She turned around to see Ben riding on a Marine's back, surrounded by five other Marines.
"It just made me start crying that they would have picked him up and helped him finish the race," she said.
The Marine who carried Ben was Pfc. Matt Morgan of San Diego, Calif.
Morgan, 19, has been in the Marines for a year and is based in
Pensacola, Fla. A group of Marines had come to the Sea Turtle Tri to
volunteer.
"I'd seen him many times in the race. He was doing very well," Morgan
said of Ben. "It came to the final leg of the race where it was a run
and I was sitting at the halfway point with people that were passing out
water and we were motivating some of the contestants. And as he
approached the halfway point, his prosthetic failed and he fell."
A group of Marines ran to Ben to see whether he was all right, but by
the time they got to him, Ben had already jumped up and was trying to
fix his leg. Morgan asked him whether he needed help.
"He said no, he'd finish by himself and he continued to try and fix his
prosthetic. But after a couple seconds, he knew there was something
wrong with it and he was going to need a hand," Morgan said.
"We saw Pfc. Morgan carrying him and that's when all the Marines lined
up," Gunnery Sgt. Wilbur Anderson, who coordinated the event, said. "We
got into column of twos. I ran up to Ben and I said, 'Hey, you're going
to be taken home by the Marines today.' And we made it to the finish
line. It was a truly moving day.
"He was going to finish the race no matter what, but I told him to jump on and we finished the race together," Morgan said.
Capt. Frank Anderson, Morgan's commanding officer, said he was not at all shocked by what he saw.
"I was shocked [with] the publicity, but I wasn't surprised in Pfc.
Morgan's actions," Anderson said. "That's something we do as Marines.
It's that unwavering dedication to our fellow Marines and competitors in
this case."
Ben was diagnosed with bone cancer in his right leg when he was 6 and
had his tibia and fibula amputated. He has different prosthetics for
walking and running. The avid athlete plays soccer and basketball in
addition to running, biking and swimming for triathlons. He says biking
is his favorite.
"There's no child like him [in our area], so we encourage him to
participate in activities and he's very athletic and it just doesn't
stop him," Kim Baltz said. "He's just your normal kid and he just
happens to have a prosthetic leg."
Baltz said Ben does not understand how much of an inspiration he is to
others. He often meets with other children who are getting amputations,
have gotten amputations or are preparing for chemotherapy. He brings the
prosthetics that he has outgrown for them to play with and shows them
how he can run with his.
"It helps to see other kids survive and make it," Baltz said. "They
realize they can have a life after cancer and after amputation."
Ben will be reunited with the Marines who helped him out this afternoon in Pensacola.
"Pfc. Morgan did the right thing at the right time for the right reasons
and accomplished a mission for himself and that young boy, Ben, so I'm
happy," Capt. Anderson said. "I'm looking forward to meeting the lion
heart named Ben."
Copyright 2012 by ABC News
