CNN correspondent Miles O’Brien was on assignment in the Philippines a few weeks ago when his arm was crushed helping his crew access their equipment on a truck.

O’Brien’s arm needed to be amputated to save his life.

He is not bitter.

In fact, he says the treatment he got in the Philippines was probably the same as the treatment he would have gotten in the U.S.  So far as we know he didn’t sue his employer for workplace negligence. 

O’Brien suffers phantom pains in his arm (portions of it may be gone, but he feels like it is still there). 

Shortly after the accident, Miles O’Brien kept a previously scheduled date to moderate an event back in Washington at The National Academy of Sciences on climate change.  He said he had committed to host the event “obviously long before my accident”.

O’Brien has the same long road ahead of him that other amputees have (my father had his leg amputated later in life so I can relate to this story a bit).

By refusing to blame others or pity himself, Miles O’Brien is on his way to full recovery.  Or as he says, “this is a great opportunity for me to buy some really cool new gadgets.”

For the rest of us, do we have to lose an arm to say what O’Brien is saying?

“I’m alive.  I’m glad to be alive”.

If he can say it after his traumatic accident, what is our excuse?

Let’s be a little more glad to be alive today.

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