An 87-year-old man jumped out of an airplane thousands of feet over Ohio on Saturday to help his sick 11-month-old great-grandson.

Clarence Turner of Warren County took the tandem skydive with an instructor near Waynesville to help raise money for medical bills for Julian Couch, who has been in the hospital since he was born, NBC station WLWT of Cincinnati reported.

The boy has a rare protein deficiency and underwent a lung transplant on Mother's Day. Turner said his great-grandson's medical bills have topped $1 million, WLWT reported. A fundraiser is planned for June 2.

A slideshow on WLWT’s website shows Turner suiting up for the jump, crouching in the aircraft, then jumping out with the instructor and freefalling before the chute is pulled and they glide in to earth.

But parachuting is nothing new for Turner: WLWT reported that he had made 16 jumps while in the Army during World War II and two more since then -- one in November.

Turner told WLWT that the boy's parents have struggled since his birth. While they spent time at the hospital with him over the past year, their house was burglarized and their car was stolen, he told WLWT.

On Saturday, the North Texas man who was one of the first Americans to receive a full face transplant married another burn patient he met at a support group.

Dallas Wiens, of Fort Worth, was severely injured in a bizarre construction accident in 2008 when he came in contact with a high-voltage power line.

See a gallery of photos of their wedding at NBCDFW.com

Jamie Nash, of Garland, nearly died in a car crash in Ennis in 2010. Her car erupted in flames, and she was trapped. She was severely burned on her hands, back and legs.

The couple became engaged last fall.

Wiens and Nash exchanged vows Saturday morning at the Fort Worth church where Wiens was working when he was injured.

The couple celebrated with a reception in downtown Fort Worth. They invited their doctors and nurses.

Relationship built on hope
The couple met in a support group at Parkland Hospital, where both were being treated.

"I was drawn to him. I just had to meet him," Nash said in November. "I just looked at him from across the room, and there was something about him."

See original report at NBCDFW.com

Wiens said he wasn't interested -- at first.

"I had sworn off love and relationships," he said. "I had no desire to be in one whatsoever."

Then, on Christmas Eve, they talked all night and set up a date.

"We went to dinner and a movie, and that's all she wrote," he said.

The two said they have been together every day since.

"I told him it's got to be love, because I'm not sick of you," Nash joked. "I know I've never felt more real than this."

The couple plans to put their pasts behind them.

"There's no reason to dwell on the past," he said.

"It's dead and gone," she added. "It burned in the fire."

They said they make the perfect couple and help balance each other.

Her hands, for example, were severely injured in her accident. His are fine.

She can see. He lost his eyesight in the accident.

"It's a story of hope, a story of true survivors," Nash said. "I mean, if we can do it, I guarantee you, anybody out there -- we all have a story. We're all going through something. And I want to give everybody hope."

NBC 7 San Diego

Caltrans worker Joe Thomas with Cesar Ortiz. Thomas gave CPR to Cesar on the side of the road after the child's mother flagged him down.

A Caltrans maintenance worker who helped save a toddler’s life along State Route 54 in the San Diego area earlier this week was reunited with the happy, healthy baby boy and his very grateful family on Friday.

On Monday, Caltrans worker Joe Thomas was traveling along SR-54 when he noticed two women in distress on the side of the road, crying and waving for help.

The women, mother Denise Ortiz and grandmother Rebecca Hill, told Thomas their 13-month-old baby, Cesar Ortiz, wasn’t breathing and needed immediate medical attention.

Thomas called 911, grabbed the child from Hill's hands and proceeded to render first aid and CPR on the spot, saving the tot’s life.

Hill says the family was driving on the freeway when baby Cesar suddenly began crying and shaking. After that, the baby’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and he stopped breathing.

By the time Thomas pulled over and got to Cesar, Thomas says the boy was not breathing and had turned blue.

Thomas says he immediately began compressions on the baby’s chest and back and then administered CPR. Eventually, Cesar began gasping for air and was able to breathe on his own again.

Read more stories at NBCSanDiego.com

Emergency crews arrived shortly thereafter and transported the revived toddler to Rady Children's Hospital. He was released that same day and is now doing well.

The child's mother said Cesar had been sick a week earlier. Doctors told her the child had suffered a high fever in the car, followed by a small seizure that made him temporarily stop breathing.

Ortiz and Hill say they’re extremely thankful to Thomas for saving Cesar’s life.

Thomas says he just wanted the little boy to be okay and did what he had to do.

“I didn’t think about it, I just did it,” said Thomas.

All three believe Thomas was at the right place at the right time.

Normally, Thomas said he doesn’t travel along SR-54 for work, but that day something just told him to drive that way.

"I just think God led me that way that day. God just used me," he added.

Thomas, who’s worked for Caltrans for the past 15 years and has four children of his own, says he learned his CPR skills from training seminars held by his company.

Thomas says he receives CPR training through Caltrans every three years, but this was the first time he’s ever had to use those skills. He urges everyone to become trained in CPR as a precaution.

After this scary incident, both Ortiz and Hill say they plan to take CPR classes.

“I was scared; I’ve never been through this before,” said Ortiz. “I have to take a CPR class now, just in case.”

Happy ending and all, the story of Thomas, baby Cesar and family doesn’t end here.

They all say they plan to stay in touch for many years to come.

“We’re in a long term relationship now – I’m bringing them into my family,” said Thomas.

At Friday’s heartfelt reunion, baby Cesar was full of energy -- walking, laughing, talking and playing like a healthy, bouncy, baby boy. He hugged the man who saved him and giggled when Thomas put a white Caltrans hard-hat on his little head.

As for Caltrans, well, they're pretty proud of Thomas' quick-thinking and compassion on the job.

The company thanked their heroic worker on Twitter earlier this week, posting : “Great job Joe!”

Great job, indeed.

MIAMI -- Despite a terrible Valentine's Day experience in the Cayman Islands, Daniel Donagher is in great spirits.

"Yeah it's good to be alive you know," he said.

On Feb. 14, he was airlifted from The Grand Cayman Islands to Fort Lauderdale after he broke his pelvis from sliding off a horse.

"My doctor you know searched for the best guy, came up with Dr. Daniel Chan, put me back together couple days later I'm home," he said.

Donagher was so grateful for his care he paid for a plane sign that  reads "Dr. Daniel Chan is the man! Thanks Memorial staff. Don."

"Well it's always a nice gesture from a patient but obviously totally unnecessary, but Don's an interesting guy," said Chan, an orthopedic surgeon at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla.

Chan said Donagher came in in stable condition but needed surgery to restore his alignment and stability of his pelvis so he could walk again.

"When I came out of surgery and I woke up, I was like Dr. Chan you're the man. I mean, I was screaming. I mean it's good to be alive. Until you're in this position you just don't know," he said.

Chan said that after about six to eight weeks of rest and therapy, Donagher will be walking like normal again.

Bu as for his Valentine's Day, Donagher said: "It was my one day of the year, you know my big day of the year and now wife said no rain check either." 

Forget Lassie.

A homeless man outside Olympia, Wash., is thanking his dog, Buddy, for heroics that may well have saved his life.

On Wednesday afternoon, the man – whose identity is not being released by police – tucked a note into his dog’s harness with a hastily written plea for help. Since early that morning he had been unable to move, lying on the floor of the makeshift home he had constructed in the woods near Tumwater.

“This was his last-ditch effort. He thought he was going to die,” said Detective Jen Kolb of the Tumwater Police Department.

Luckily, a woman who frequently walked her dog through the woods recognized Buddy and noticed the note. The word “HELP” was scribbled in large font, with the plea: “Send help. No joke. Cannot walk.”

The woman quickly dialed 911, but what was missing from the SOS was the man’s name or any indication of where he was. But on the other side of the scrap paper were directions to the Washington state Department of Social and Health Services, which frequently works with the area’s homeless.

Police scoured the woods, known to have a large homeless population, looking for make-shift shelters where the injured man may have been. After a short search, the man was found and transported to a hospital in Olympia where he was treated and released.

“This was his best friend, and the one he relied on when he needed someone the most,” said Kolb. “It’s one of those heartwarming stories that kind of remind you of Lassie."

The man is recovering with friends, while Buddy has been taken in by animal services.

The Detroit Bureau

GM CEO Dan Akerson will auction off his 1958 Corvette to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.

Want to buy a Corvette? No, not the new C7 Chevrolet Corvette that made its splashy debut at the North American International Auto Show this past week.

The one going on the auction block at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Friday has a bit more miles on the odometer, though it appears the relatively rare ’58 ‘Vette is in excellent condition.  It also happens to be the personal car of Dan Akerson, CEO of Chevy’s parent, General Motors.

The sale will be used to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, according to the maker, the proceeds specifically earmarked for the restoration of the Morningside Commons neighborhood not far from GM’s headquarters along the Detroit River.  Akerson has reportedly already given Habitat about $1 million of his own money during the past year.

If you’re really desperate to get one of the new 2014 Corvettes, however, you can bid on the first of the seventh-generation models, the so-called C7, a day later, also at the Barrett-Jackson Auction. And like Akerson’s first-generation two-seater, proceeds will also be donated, in this case to Detroit’s College for Creative Studies.

“I love the car,” Akerson, a Naval Academy graduate who joined GM, initially as a board member, following its 2009 bankruptcy. But he says it could be “better purposed” auctioning it off for charity.

Akerson’s Corvette is a first-generation model that, GM notes, “featured a 245-horsepower V-8 and included new body and instrument panels and new upholstery. External highlights included dual headlamps – a Corvette first – and twin chrome trunk spears. Chevrolet built 9,168 Corvettes for the 1958 model year, but only 510, or just over 5 percent, were painted Regal Turquoise. Akerson’s Corvette is a hardtop convertible and is considered scarce among remaining 1958 models.”

Based on a study of 173 auctions of 1958 Chevy Corvettes by website ConceptCarz.com, the average sale price was $92,796, but the figure has soared as high as $346,500. Being in great shape and one of the rarer versions of the ’58 ‘Vettes, Akerson’s might normally be expected to push into the upper part of that range – at the very least – once the gavel goes down.

The Barrett-Jackson Auction is known for building up a frenzy of bidding on charity projects, especially for unique, one-off and first-off-the-line models like the 2013 Corvette 427 Convertible that went for a cool $600,000 last year.  (It raised money for AARP’s Drive to End Hunger program.)

In mid-2012, another Barrett event got $300,000 for the first of Chrysler’s new SRT Viper sports cars.

The auction of the 1958 Corvette is scheduled to begin around 7:30 p.m. Friday.

More from The Detroit Bureau

• GM president: Electric car not dead
• Chrysler Will Get 2 "People Movers," but Just One Minivan
• Toyota poised to settle unintended acceleration wrongful death suits

Courtesy Sunshine Cleaning Systems

Cleaning service worker Patrick Morgan, second from left, was honored for his honesty Wednesday, in front of airport officials, his bosses, colleagues and the media.

A cleaning service worker at a Florida airport found an iPad – with $13,000 stuffed in its case – and turned it in. He then gave away the small reward he got from the owner to two people in need.

But that honesty and kindness paid off for Patrick Morgan, who was honored in a recognition ceremony Wednesday, NBCMiami.com reported.

Back in December, Morgan had spotted the lost iPad and hefty sum of cash when he was working an early shift at Florida's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

"I opened it first, and I saw all the money, and I quickly closed it back up," said Morgan, of Patrick's Cleaning Service.

Just minutes after Morgan alerted authorities about his discovery, the panicked iPad owner returned and gave Morgan $60 as a reward. Morgan then gave away some of the $60 to a homeless woman at the airport and the rest to a struggling cleaning employee.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

To honor that honesty, the Broward County Aviation Department in Florida presented Morgan with a gift and plaque on Wednesday. His employer, Sunshine Cleaning Systems, also gave him $625, equivalent to a week of paid vacation, according to NBCMiami.com. This time, he said he'll keep the money, NBCMiami.com reported.

"Patrick is such an outstanding and honest person," Larry Calufetti, president of Sunshine Cleaning Systems, said in a statement. "What he did speaks volumes about his personality."

Morgan was reportedly brought to tears during Wednesday's ceremony: "It’s just a good feeling to know that I returned it and that's the bottom line. I wasn't looking for anything."

NBCMiami.com's Julia Bagg contributed to this story.

LA HABRA, Calif. -- When Max Igoe was 5 years old, breast cancer claimed the life of his mother's best friend, 37-year-old Beth Rorman. The little boy found himself expressing his pain with the kind of idea only a kindergartner might conceive: a lemonade stand.

"It's just the first thing that popped into my head," said Max, now 14.

Nicki Igoe, Max's mother, said her son was aware her friend was sick.

"He knew that she had something called cancer," she recalled. Rorman battled the illness for some 10 years.

Max told his mom he would set up a lemonade stand near their La Habra home, and raise money for breast cancer research. Maybe even help them discover a cure.

"I explained to him that it wasn't the olden days. That people don't buy lemonade from peoples' driveways like they used to," Nicki said.

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But she didn't want to hurt his feelings, either, not while he was mourning "Auntie Beth's" loss. So she helped him mix some juice, prop up a table and hand-print some signs.

This weekend, they will set up Max's stand for the ninth year in a row after years full of hundreds of gallons of pink sweet liquid, numerous raffles, "casino-night" fundraisers and days of labor.

Max has exceeded his wildest dreams: "We've raised over $80,000."

His goal? "A million dollars." And a cure.

Nicki said after every sale, they ask him if he wants to continue, and his answer for the last nine years has been the same: Yes.

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A city bus driver says he was thinking of his own young daughter when he rushed to catch a 7-year-old girl plunging three stories from a New York building Monday – an action caught on video.

"Please let me catch her, please let me catch her," Stephen St. Bernard, 52, recalled thinking. "That's all I could say. Let me catch the little baby."

"I think about my daughter, and you know, she's a little kid," he said.

St. Bernard, an MTA bus driver of 10 years, was returning home to Coney Island from his job at about 2 p.m. when he heard screams coming from a building courtyard.

He rushed toward the commotion and saw a girl standing on top of a third-floor window air conditioning unit. He immediately ran underneath the window.

"She just stood up there teetering, teetering," he said.

See the original story at NBCNewYork.com

Amateur video shows St. Bernard shouting up to the girl, trying to talk the girl into going back into her apartment. Suddenly, the girl falls, eliciting horrified screams from neighbors.

But St. Bernard catches her in his arms, stumbling slightly forward to the ground with the girl still firmly in his grasp.

"I picked her up and carried her, and I was holding her, rubbing her, and she just more or less kept looking around," he told NBC 4 New York. "She never closed her eyes, she didn't lose consciousness."

The girl was not wearing pants, and St. Bernard wrapped her in his MTA uniform shirt as he waited for paramedics to arrive.

She was taken to Coney Island Hospital with very minor injuries.

"He's my hero," said the girl's aunt, Monique Harding. "He definitely did our family a favor today."

Police sources said the girl has autism. Her mother was inside the apartment watching her other child and did not see the girl standing outside on the A/C, the sources said.

St. Bernard sustained a torn tendon in his shoulder but he is expected to be OK.

The girl's mother did not want to speak with reporters Monday.

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