Ware man is honored as hometown hero

WARE, Mass. (WWLP) - Someone who saves a child's life without regard for their own safety is a Pioneer Valley Red Cross hometown hero.

22NEWS reporter profiles a man who let nothing stop him from saving a three year old girl

22NEWS first met George Gorton at Baystate Medical center. He suffered a badly damaged leg rescuing the 3 year old from a van that was rolling down a steep hill in East Longmeadow last summer.

Gorton's girl friend recalls the urgency. George's leg healed slowly and during one depressing day a thank you card from the little girl's mother lifted his spirits.

How ironic just five days after he saved the little girl's life, the child would celebrate her fourth birthday.

George would be nominated without hesitation as a hometown hero by Baystate medical center nurse Caroline McAleer.

It's obvious that George Gorton of Ware who works at the Shriner's hospital in Springfield is not just anybody.

He's a hometown hero who is blessed with uncommon compassion.