he saved his life. >> he's strange. he's a genius. he's autistic. would you want him treating him? that's thevoke tif question. good evening, i'm elizabeth vargas here in a trauma bay at a major american hospital. a place that none of us ever hope to be, a place we hope will have the best doctor possible taking care of us. what if that doctor can't see or hear or walk? >> you're pretty tall. >> i thought there's no way i could stand at an operating table. >> have you ever had a single patient tell you i don't want

you treating me. >> how about a doctor improvi improvisi improvising? for this doctor that's another day at the office on mt. everest. saving a climber's life with whatever she had on hand or on foot. were you making it up as you were going? tonight, you'll see that sometimes the smallest differences can make all the difference. "the good doctors:brilliance and bravery" a special edition of "20/20." i need to get to san jose st. bonaventure hospital. >> reporter: he's a hero unlike any other. >> it changed. >> reporter: dr. sean murphy. >> the boy's ecg changed. >> reporter: a brilliant, visionary surgeon. >> lower amplitude means lower voltage. >> reporter: who just happens to have autism and savant syndrome. >> the veins in the boy's left arm are popping. >> reporter: his condition leads

to strokes of medical genius. >> his heart, it's his heart. >> reporter: but also moments of awkwardness and alienation. >> behave yourself or i will have you removed from the building. >> reporter: then, there's the skepticism and prejudices of a hospital's board and staff. >> and you genuinely thought the board wouldn't reasonably have any doubts about hiring a surgeon who's been diagnosed with autism? >> yes, he has autism. but he has spate shl intelligence and he sees things, he analyzes things in ways that we can't even begin to understand. >> reporter: this may be the first time a doctor with a severe disability is the lead of a primetime drama, but it's certainly not the first time such a doctor has put on scrubs in real life. imagine if your doctor couldn't see? dr. tim cordes of wisconsin is blind, but he's able to identify irregular heartbeats without a stethoscope because of his advanced hearing. what if your doctor who couldn't hear? dr. philip zazove of michigan is

deaf, but he's able to use a stethoscope because he's hypersensitive to vibration. he also reads lips to communicate. >> this lock in the knees. they are both locked in place. >> those two? >> reporter: or how would you react if you thought your surgeon was unable to stand over the operating table? >> and i have a belt in here. >> reporter: before you answer, meet dr. chris mcculloh of the morristown medical center in new jersey. >> wow! >> reporter: his $20,000 standing wheelchair a feat of engineering. >> i didn't know chris, but you're pretty tall. >> i'm 6'3", but that actually becomes more of a challenge. >> reporter: enabling this third-year general surgery resident to do something so remarkable, only a handful of paralyzed doctors in the country can do it -- stand. >> how many times a day do you do this? >> five, six times a day. >> reporter: chris had always wanted to be a surgeon, but his medical career was almost over before it began. >> i had already been accepted to medical school.

>> what happened? >> i was standing up from being seated at my desk. and i slipped, and my whole body went up and i came crashing down. i'm 6'3", 200 pounds of me landed on the edge of a think glass coffee table. my head snapped backwards and i broke the vertebra in my neck. i knew when i couldn't move my legs that something was wrong. in the back of my mind i was, i was yelling please don't let me be paralyzed, i'd rather be dead. >> really, you actually thought that? >> oh yeah. i thought my life was over. >> reporter: the one-time avid skier underwent months of rehabilitation strengthening his body, rebuilding his resolve. >> when i got to rehab they said, you're probably never gonna walk again, and i said, oh they don't know what they're talking about. >> reporter: chris made it through medical school, and eventually learned that his so-called disability actually plays to his advantage. >> when he comes into the room at a level that's more of a patient's level.

>> you mean, literally? >> at eye level. and that helps a lot. >> reporter: in fact, one study suggests patients perceive doctors to be giving them more quality time when the doctor is sitting during consults, instead of standing. >> so you think the fact that he's lower, actually, really helps. >> yes, because that he is lower and a lot of it is his innate personality. >> reporter: but right now it's all about chris's skill as a surgeon, not his bedside manner. we watch as he heads in to assist on a double mastectomy supported by his hydraulic wheelchair. >> it levels the playing field. i can get to everyone's level and get to the table like everyone else. i don't want to be treated differently than anybody else or ask for any different accommodations or ask for anyone to do things differently. >> so, this thing allowed your dreams to come true? >> it did. it absolutely did. i think it certainly gives me the opportunity to connect with patients.

they look and they can see very visibly that i've been in the bed. i know what's like. >> you're a nice kid, but you don't belong here. >> how many times was that said to you? >> more than i can count. >> reporter: tyler sexton's journey from patient to doctor has been one long uphill battle. he suffers from spastic diplegia. it is a form of cerebral palsy, a chronic neuromuscular condition that affects balance, as well as movement below the waist. but, his condition effects more than his legs. >> did the disease also affect your eyes? >> there's no visual impairment at all but, there is a lazy eye is the common term. so, yes. >> reporter: an obstacle that has tripped up this good doctor since he was born six weeks premature. >> the doctor called us in and he said he will definitely be physically disabled and may never get out of a wheelchair. he will probably be mentally disabled.

>> doctors would tell me that i wouldn't amount to anything. that i could sharpen pencils for a living. >> doctors told you that? >> yes. >> reporter: when tyler was 3, he got his first walker but he still had trouble keeping his balance. >> you broke bones because you fell so much. >> correct. i've broken almost every bone in my body. major bones, from knees to wrists, to ankles, i use to fall from four to six times a day. >> reporter: but, instead of giving up, he kept getting up. needing help with his own two legs, he turned to someone with four, this is danny, tyler's service dog. >> so you're using his body weight to keep yourself from falling? >> correct. because the way i walk my body, is it goes back and forth. >> reporter: tyler says there were years growing up when the teasing was relentless. >> it got so bad that i would pretend that i was blind, and nobody would mess with the blind guy. >> reporter: tyler says he could

handle the taunts from other kids, but the discouragement from adults is what threw him off balance. >> i had an interview at this medical school, and he looked at me. he said, "you will never be a doctor." and i said, "why?" he said, "cause they won't come to you." >> did you start to rethink your commitment to becoming a doctor? >> i will tell you that i was broken. >> reporter: broken but not beaten, he applied to a dozen medical schools in the united states, and despite having straight a's, every single school rejected him. still, he refused to accept that patients would shun him. he just needed that degree. >> you did manage to get into a medical school -- >> i did. >> -- outside the country. >> i did. i went to the university of sint eustatius school of medicine on an island of statia. >> reporter: a small medical school in the middle of the caribbean. tyler graduated in 2011, and was surprised when a hospital back in the states was willing to take him on for his residency. the kind of support dr. shaun murphy finds in "the good doctor." >> we hire shaun, and we make

this hospital better for it. we hire shaun and we are better people for it. >> i could give you a list of the doctors that did believe in me. the good doctors. >> how in the world medical schools passed on him? is incomprehensible. they missed out on a rock star. >> now the head of pediatrics at this hospital in mississippi, tyler says most of his patients are kids with special needs of their own, they've never objected to a doctor with a service dog. and as for those college advisers who told him people would not want him as their doctor. >> have you ever had a single patient tell you, "i don't want you treating me?" >> never. not once. matter of fact, they ask for me. >> without dr. sexton we don't know where we'd be we were so grateful to find him dr. sexton is a pediatric god. >> reporter: to make his young patients feel at ease, he wears superhero t-shirts.

>> do you have one of those t-shirts on every single day? >> every day. and i teach kids that they're something special and they're super. we're all handicapped. mine, the world can see, but we're all struggling with something, and my disability gives me credibility. next, he can turn an airline terminal into a makeshift o.r. she can do the same on the side of mt. everest. saving a life. >> i felt like he's going to die. >> with make-do medicine. >> we used viagra. >> viagra? >> when we come back. ♪ more, more, more ♪ how do you like it ♪ how do you like it ♪ more, more, more ♪ how do you like it ♪ how do you like it ♪ more, more, more ♪ how do you like it ♪ how do you like your love ♪ uh, oh, oh ♪ how do like it ♪ tell me how you like it ♪ how do you like it

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we continue with this special edition of "20/20." once again, elizabeth vargas. >> reporter: when a fluke airport accident nearly takes a young boy's life, dr. murphy springs into action. >> excuse me. >> reporter: with no available surgical tools, he's forced to rely on what he can find -- a box cutter for a scalpel, some duty-free bourbon for sterilization, and plastic

tubing for a pump. saving a boy from a collapsed lung. >> he saved his life. >> reporter: that singular skill is known as "improvised medicine" and dr. luanne freer is one the few real-world physicians who make it their practice. >> there are just a handful of us physicians who find this great challenge and it's just a real turn-on to be able to macgyver, you know, a way to deal with an emergency. how to get somebody better when you don't have all the equipment. >> reporter: here at mt. everest, the world's tallest, known to locals as "goddess mother of the world," sits a tented clinic so isolated. medical improvisation is a must. dr. luanne freer has acquired the skills of a virtuoso.

freer, a wilderness enthusiast, launched this place 14 years ago. it sits nearly 18,000 feet high on the side of the mountain and it's open two months each spring, when hundreds of people come from around the world, to try and summit mt. everest. in her time, freer has fashioned a stretcher from coiled rope a tarp. she's set broken bones with trekking poles. >> too much pain? >> reporter: she's even extracted teeth with pliers from the local sherpa guides. >> yeah, it's pretty rooted in there. >> reporter: but it's the visiting climbers who usually need the most serious attention. this is a deadly and has been a deadly adventure for many people. >> tragedies happen every year, our bodies are not designed to live in this austere environment. there's no oxygen, the conditions are brutal. >> reporter: so brutal that

nearing the 29,029-foot summit, oxygen ceases to exist. it's an area called the death zone. by far the greatest risk to climbers is high altitude pulmonary edema, or hape -- reduced oxygen in the air causes some blood vessels in the lungs to dangerously constrict. the pressure causes those vessels to leak, filling the airways with blood, making breathing difficult, even impossible. but perhaps dr. freer's greatest macgyver episode happened when crossed paths with joe and liz hughes. avid mountaineers, the couple met while climbing a mountain in south africa. although deny it was "love at first height." >> no. it was friendship -- >> yes. >> kindred spirit.

you're doing something that's very dangerous. we watched out for each other. >> both were experienced climbers. they felt like they were destined to be together, though it also seemed they would never hear little footsteps behind them. >> you didn't even think you could get pregnant -- >> it wasn't supposed to be in the cards for me. >> reporter: but conquering mt. everest was, and the couple vowed to do it as a team. >> it can be the most incredible experience but it -- it's also a killer. people die there. >> yes. >> were you fully aware of the risks? did it make you give -- give it a second thought at all? >> of course, there's always, you know, doubt and some fear, but i was up for the challenge and i was ready to do it. >> you gamed the risks and figured out this -- >> exactly. >> is worth the risk? >> it's worth the risk. >> reporter: after six months of intensive training, they set off in the spring of 2004. their plans quickly went awry. >> when was the first time you met them? >> they came to meet me because they were concerned because liz kept getting dizzy and passing out. >> what did you think as you examined her and talked to her?

>> i thought, "wow, we better just make sure that you couldn't be pregnant 'cause pregnancy can cause you to feel a little bit dizzy and woozy." >> she diagnosed me pregnant on the mountain. >> and you had no idea -- >> no idea. >> and it shocks me to this day to even think about it, yeah. >> wow. >> reporter: the news, thrilling, the timing, not so much. about to be a mother, liz knew this climb of a lifetime was over. >> did you tell her she should descend immediately? >> i did. we both cried a little bit. >> reporter: joe was so overjoyed, he proposed on the spot. >> i said, "do you want me to come?" and she was like, "no, i can't let this stop your life's dream." >> reporter: as liz headed home to the states, joe pushed on, scaling 21,000 feet up the side of mt. everest.

along the way, he had been making recordings for students back home who were following his everest adventure. >> for the past four days we've been sitting in base camp and it feels like forever. when you sit you get weaker, your muscles start to get tight. >> reporter: now, suddenly feeling weak he makes what would be his last dispatch. >> but i dig deep. i pushed so hard that i collapsed. and this morning all i want to do is sleep. >> all of a sudden, i'm feeling like i can't breathe. i'm feeling tired. i feel like i'm working hard. but in my mind, i'm climbing mt. everest. you're supposed to feel like this. >> reporter: a film crew on the mountain turns its lens on joe who can no longer walk without help. tantalizingly close to the summit, his lifelong dream slips away as an emergency call goes out. >> american climber joe hughes has to be helped and often

carried down over 5,000 feet vertical feet past the treacherous khumbu icefall. >> we got reports from other climbers past the falls, that this guy doesn't look so goods. >> reporter: fearing the worst, luanne sends sherpas with a stretcher to help bring joe down the mountain. blood is beginning to flood joe's lungs, his life is slipping away, but instead of being wheeled into a hospital he's being carried into a this tent. and it require the daring, improvisational medicine of dr. freer and a big dose of good fortune for joe to make it home alive. stay with us. was for langoustine ravioli. a langoustine is a tiny kind of lobster. a slight shellfish allergy rules that out, plus my wife ordered the langoustine. i will have chicken tenders and tater tots. if you're a ref, you way over-explain things. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance you switch to geico. sir, we don't have tater tots.

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reporter: joe hughes never

thought he'd be here inside of a clinic, on the face of mt. everest. suffering from high altitude pulmonary edema, with his new fiancee and unborn child. waiting for him to come home. >> the calls stopped and i was trying not to think the worst. >> reporter: there's only one person who can save him, dr. luanne freer, and from her makeshift everest e.r., she's about to give a master class in medical improvisation documented by a film crew. what was his condition when he finally did arrive, carried into your tent? >> he -- he was gravely ill. he was blue, he was gasping to breathe. you could hear the bubbling in his chest without a stethoscope because blood is literally leaking into the -- >> reporter: pooling in his own lungs? >> in -- in your lungs, yeah. >> and you can eventually drown? >> right, people drown in their own blood. and -- and it's the most common cause of death at high altitude.

>> reporter: now, dr. freer is scrambling to figure out to do and the situation is becoming more dire by the moment. >> he was the closest to death i've ever seen of somebody with high altitude pulmonary edema. >> what's the normal treatment for it? >> high flow oxygen will help reverse the process. unfortunately, in austere settings, you don't have unlimited oxygen. >> what kind of medications did you give him? >> we gave him everything i could think of that could decrease the blood pressure in the lung. >> reporter: her skills pushed to limits even dr. shaun murphy would find daunting. were you just making it up as you were going? >> a little bit. at that point, i felt like, you know, we got to throw everything at this guy. he's going to die. >> reporter: the answer, a little blue pill that's come to many a man's assistance. we used viagra. >> viagra? >> yeah.

viagra was first developed as a medication to detect blood pressure in the lungs. >> oh, really? >> and then its more lucrative side benefit became known. >> in this situation, joe needs a pill every six hours. did it work? >> it did. >> somebody might ask why did you have viagra on mt. everest? >> we had it specifically for that -- because we knew we had limited supplies of oxygen. >> reporter: but there's still the matter of joe's severe dehydration. he urgently needs iv fluids and in the zero degree, spring temperatures of everest at night, that's a tall order especially when the tent's power generator briefly goes down. how did you keep the iv liquids from freezing? >> yeah, that's -- that's been something that took me a couple of years to figure out. this is the fluid we've just warmed it up. in a pan of hot water, and it's and we want to minimize the heat

loss so what we improvise is putting it through the sleeve of a friend. >> oh, so then, the tubing runs along their body. >> right, everybody's wearing down-jackets, and why not use this body heat that's trapped in the down jackets. >> reporter: the iv had worked but joe wasn't out of danger yet. >> i turned around to the expedition leader and i said start working on a helicopter. he needs to go to someone who treats high altitude pulmonary edema. >> reporter: as night turns to day, joe desperately needs to get to a hospital. but, a helicopter rescue at that altitude is impossible, the air too thin. so the sherpa's must improvise too, on dr. freer's request, they take turns carrying him 5,000 feet down the mountain, where he can be safely flown to nearest hospital before returning to liz. >> i've told her many times i'd be raising my daughter alone if it wasn't for her. sflsh his life had been spared

that night on the deadly mountain by the heroics a savvy, quick thinking wilderness doctor, unafraid to think out of the box. >> what she was able to do and what she was able to come up with is not part of medical training that's instinct. that's on par with the ability to, you know, rescue a soldier. >> reporter: nine months later, the hughes family had a chance to express their appreciation. you named your daughter after -- >> yes, absolutely. >> absolutely. >> reporter: tara "luanne" is now a spirited 12-year-old. she's grown up immersed in the folklore of her parent's journey to mt. everest. >> i think i am going to be at a loss for words seeing for the first time the woman who saved my dad's life and who told my mom she was pregnant with me. zmrsh and last week, we brought everyone together. we have a little something that we want to show you. >> hi.

>> come here. >> thank you. >> i love you. this is my little family. next, childhood tragedy turns dr. murphy into a doctor. you won't be the bizarre coincidence that happened later in the e.r. ♪ when you don't get enough sleep, and your body aches, you're not yourself. tylenol® pm relieves pain and helps you fall fast asleep and stay asleep. we give you a better night,

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we continue with this special edition of "20/20." once again, elizabeth vargas. >> echocardiogram? >> who's this guy? >> reporter: yes, dr. shaun murphy is different. >> there! >> looks normal to me. >> it's not normal. there's a concave deformity in the right atrium. >> reporter: but in another sense he's exactly like so many others --- compelled to pursue a career in medicine by the pain

of searing personal tragedies. >> the day that the rain smelled like ice cream, my bunny went to heaven. >> reporter: first, the loss of his beloved pet. then, his beloved brother. >> the day that the copper pipes in the old building smelled like burnt food, my brother went to heaven. neither one had a chance to be an adult. and i want to make that possible for other people. >> reporter: the way murphy reveals his motivation is dramatic, but channeling personal tragedy into professional choice is, in fact, not all that unusual. >> my inspiration to become a physician was because of my brother, jesse peetz. in 2005, he was stricken with viral meningitis. >> so when i was 13 years old, i

was at a family event where my cousin's husband suddenly collapsed, in front of us, in the living room. >> my father was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. and before my dad passed away, he told me that he thought i had a gift for nursing. and he told me that i had healing hands. >> reporter: but of all the stories we heard from around the country, the career of dr. debbie yi follows a path like no other. today, she's an emergency room doctor at university of california, san francisco. the personal and painful history that got her here began here, 14 years ago. debbie was sharing a new york city apartment with her sister and best friend christine. debbie had recently been working as an investment banking analyst when she got some terrifying news. >> my sister christine was in a terrible accident. she was hit by a train -- a subway train in new york. she tripped on the subway platform and landed in the area between two subway cars. and the train began to drive

away and she was still on the track. >> her heart stopped at one point? >> yes, her heart stopped. she stopped breathing. and a surgical intern provided breaths to her and brought her back to life. >> reporter: dr. toni mclaurin was the orthopedic surgeon on call when christine arrived, her right leg was completely shattered below the knee. >> she had an injury that we sort of refer to as a "mangled extremity." it tells you not only is the bone broken, but there's also been damage to the skin as well as to the muscles surrounding the bone. >> reporter: what do you remember about the accident that day? >> fortunately i don't actually remember very much. i remember leaving my office that day.

and the next thing i remember is being in the dark, in a lot of pain, and someone calling out to me, telling me that help was on the way. >> it was after her surgery and she asked me why she felt like she couldn't wiggle her toes. >> what did you tell her? >> i think there's no room for sugarcoating things in times like this. and i told her, you were in a terrible accident. and you lost your leg. >> that had to have been devastating. >> i think i was on a lot of medication. because and i said it's okay, my legs weren't that long anyway. >> you made jokes? >> i didn't realize how hard it would be at the time. i was just happy that i was alive. the next five weeks were a blur of surgeries -- 15 in total, many aimed at saving her knee. >> reporter: if you had lost that knee, what impact would that have had? >> the prosthetic leg for an above-knee amputee doesn't always work. so, it was a huge deal for me to keep my knee. >> reporter: when discharge day

finally came, christine was happy to leave the hospital, debbie, however, had decided to spend her life in one. >> after my sister's accident, i realized, i have a greater purpose in life. >> reporter: debbie decided to become a doctor like the ones who saved her sister. you not only chose medicine, but you chose trauma. >> any chest pain or trouble breathing? >> and why choose that particular path? >> i remember the first time an ambulance came, you know, pushing through, in to the emergency room. i remember that feeling i had. i felt like i was reliving what it was like to be in the emergency room when my sister arrived. >> reporter: the abc medical documentary "new york med" followed dr. yi as she tended to a patient who'd been shot. >> can you squeeze your hand for me, honey?

>> reporter: saved by a man who'd been attacked by a man wielding a machete. >> did you actually pass out today? this is why we go into emergency medicine. i've seen, you know, probably about 4,000 patients. without fail, whenever i have a patient like this, i will be smiling for the rest of the night. >> reporter: then, a stunning coincidence. >> debbie -- >> train versus human being. >> reporter: dr. yi, urgently called to treat a patient with traumatic injuries from a subway accident. what was that like for you in that moment? to actually have a patient come in to the emergency room with injuries so similar to what your sister experienced. >> when i saw that patient, i knew that, i had to take my best

care of the patient and the patient had to live. >> reporter: her sister's accident continues to define debbie, to drive her. >> i want to provide the best for my patients. and i consider that to be my thank you to all the medical staff who took care of my sister. >> reporter: yet, for christine, a different choice -- a determination to put her pain in the past. yes, that's christine, furiously spinning beside me at her favorite spinning class. her prosthetic leg not slowing her down one bit. >> christine, look at you. >> reporter: through all the blood, sweat and tears, the sisters' bond is unbroken. life moves forward. the wheel keeps spinning. next, dr. murphy breaks the rules. so did these doctors in a war zone. risking their lives to operate on a human bomb. >> boom! in this area right here was the

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reporter: a sunny spring day in eastern afghanistan. the soldiers of alpha company head out on patrol. private channing moss is on board manning a gun in a humvee. this is taliban country. >> there's danger zones all over the place. >> reporter: sergeant eric wynn is in moss's humvee. the convoy enters a narrow streambed surrounded by higher ground. >> and then you just hear a pop. >> oh, man, we're under attack. we just got ambushed. >> reporter: bullets turn to rocket-propelled grenades. rockets the size of baseball

bats, with high explosives on one end and tail-fins on the other, travelling as fast as a bullet. that is what is now raining down on alpha company. >> and i saw the first rocket hit a truck in front of me. >> it's a trail of smoke and fire. and you could hear it just barreling through the air. then you hear the boom! >> reporter: the convoy is in trouble. a pickup truck is burning. two afghan soldiers are dead. two others seriously wounded. escape is critical. >> i'm like get out of the kill zone. right when i said "get out," is when we got hit. i didn't even finish my sentence. >> reporter: three rocket-propelled grenades hit the humvee. >> it just felt like one huge blow. >> reporter: one punches through the windshield. >> i got slammed up against the truck. and i went to go return fire again, and then i smelled something smoking and i looked down and i was smoking. >> i look at him to tell him, turn the gun toward where we're

getting shot at, and that's when i noticed. he has a tail fin sticking out of his side. >> i was scared, i was screaming. >> reporter: even a battle-hardened soldier would have been shaken at the sight of moss, impaled with a three-foot rocket designed to explode on impact, killing anyone within 30 feet. >> i looked at him -- >> reporter: calls for help have reached the chopper pilots at a nearby medevac base. >> i was just like, "is the bird coming? >> reporter: then moss hears the sound of help from above. the rescue chopper has finally arrived. and for the first time the crew sees moss and those rocket fins. >> in his abdomen, in this area right here was the -- the shaft of the rocket and the fins were sticking out over here. >> reporter: army policy states they are not supposed to transport him. moss is a human bomb. but if they leave him, he will most certainly die.

so, today, they will throw out the rules and try to save a life. >> he is possibly bleeding to death internally. he's in shock. we had to get out of that situation and get to a hospital where they could do surgery on him. >> reporter: they all know the risks. death, injury, maybe even court-martial. but they also know they are taking moss very gently, rpg and all. in this corner of the war against afghanistan, the frontline army field hospital is at best makeshift with limited medical resources. bringing in a human bomb is strictly forbidden. but none of that matters now. >> dr. oh said "we're staying. we are trying. we are going to try to save his life." >> reporter: in a rare medical pairing, surgeons, major kevin kirk and major john oh are joined by explosive expert, sergeant dan brown. >> and i said okay. we're on the same page, then. >> did you ever for a moment think holy cow, this man is

alive? >> i didn't use that, i used a few choice words. i was like he is still alive and the doctor is like, yeah. >> reporter: once in the o.r. they discover what has been buried inside of moss for more than an hour. exposed in this x-ray, doctors and brown are relieved by what they don't see. the deadliest part of the rpg, the main explosive charge, is not in moss. >> so i was like "okay, here. this is a good thing." i said, "the warhead's not there." they're like "good." i said, "well, not all the way." >> reporter: what is in moss is a smaller explosive. the primer used to detonate the grenade. and if it goes off, it'll kill moss, and maim anyone nearby. >> it means we won't die, we'll just lose our hands. and they kind of looked at me, and they said, "you know, we're surgeons right?" i was like "yeah." i said, "i understand that." >> i knew that if we didn't just get this thing out, he was going to die. whether it took fingers off or not, we had to get this thing out. >> reporter: the surgeon and the sergeant forge a bond both realizing they are in uncharted territory. they would have to rely on instinct for this one.

>> i would have rather have sergeant brown than 50 other surgeons in that room at that moment, because he was the right guy to help me. every time i'd -- he'd leave, i felt like my security blanket had gone away. >> reporter: and here are the stunning images documenting the actual surgery. in an act of medical brilliance, and bravery, the good doctors reach inside moss, steadying the still lethal rocket, inches from the soldier's beating heart. >> almost there, got three more inches. >> reporter: using a hacksaw, sergeant brown gently saws off the fins and eases the rocket out. with the detonator aimed at his own body. >> if it had detonated, then it would have detonated into his flak vest. >> will there we go. >> sergeant brown took it. >> and carefully walked out? >> he walked out at a smart pace. >> reporter: once outside, brown takes the rocket to a bunker and

detonates it. >> it was the loudest sound in my whole life, and just relief, private moss is alive because of that. >> i sat on a couple of pallets outside the aid station, took my vest off that i started shaking i knew i did everything i could to help him alive. and that was very, very intense for me after the fact. >> i was given a second chance and, to whom much is given a lot is expected. a lot is expected of me. >> he was american, he was a soldier, he was a brother, and he was one of us. and there -- and there was nothing going to stop us from doing what we knew we had to do. next -- the military man who became a medical man. from iraq

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i was a captain in the united states army and i'm now a first-year medical student at harvard medical school. >> reporter: greg galeazzi's transformation from good soldier to good doctor began violently back in 2011, while he was serving in iraq. >> went out just on a normal, daily patrol, and we were on our way back from that mission and walking down the road, out of nowhere, just been hit by a roadside bomb. my legs were gone. my arm was almost completely severed at the elbow as well. without a medic there to have morphine, there was no sort of pain medication, so the only thing i could do was scream. by the time i was brought to the trauma bay, they'd revived me, what i found out then was that the real nightmare was just beginning. even with the most loving, supporting family, friends and community behind me, i was the

one that was there in the middle of the night staring at the clock, in pain, in tears, wondering when or if it'll ever get better. with time, eventually, the pain started to settle. i regained my strength. i started to regain my mobility. and as i regained my mobility, i started regained my independence. having over 50 surgeries hundreds of hours of physical therapy months on end as an inpatient in the hospital. not only did i want to practice medicine, but it -- it strengthened my resolve to do it. over two years, i ended up taking 18 courses. in march of this year 2017, i got the acceptance that i was hoping to get my number one school of choice. that was harvard medical school. it's where i met a girl jasmine who eventually is today my fiancee and planning a wedding for next year. so, even though i've gone through this journey, i mean, it's not lost on me how unbelievable this ride has been and how lucky i am to be here. be patient with difficult times and even when things may be

getting worse for a little while, just be patient and stick to it. so many incredible real stories of survival. so many good doctors. and monday, september 25th, you can see the premiere of the new show "the good doctor." and meet tv's newest superhero, dr. shaun murphy, right here on abc. that's our show tonight. i'm elizabeth vargas. thanks so much for joining us. have a great night. >> coming up on "action news," it could be a deal for daca. the search for violent armed

robbers that preyed on a disabled man and saving precious items from hurricane irma flood waters -- next. ♪ ♪ "action news," delaware valley's leading news program with jim gardner. ♪ ♪ >> said the governor of florida, this situation is unfathomable. he was referring o the deaths of eight elderly people