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Tom "weasel" Ranftl
Well, I was born 9/23/56 in chicago. Parents raised me there until I joined the AirForce in 1974. Met my current wife Vicki in 74 and we married in 1975 and been together ever since. I was stationed at Homestead AFB, Florida for 3 years and Mildenhall Royal Air Force Base in England for three years. My main job was aircraft refueling but I was also a crewmwmber on C130 aircraft flying fuel. Iwas discharged in 1980 and joined the Illinois Air NAtional Guard. In the guard, I was in Operation Desert Storm, Liberian Civil War in 91, South America on humanitarian mission and flew med evac during the Mississippi flooding. I retired in 1999. Went to school on GI BILL and got a BA in 1985. Worked for the state of Illinois, United Airlines and Gate Gourmet International.My most recent position was Safety Manager for the aircraft ramp at O'Hare. Iwas working in Denver when I had my accident. I wasnt looking where I was going and walked smack dab into the side of an airplane that was parked. It felt like a funny bone and pain went away in about 15 minutes. Later that day I got a headache, but thought it would go away. I flew back to Chicago 3 days later with a slight headache and after the plane ride, it got a little worse. I thought I was getting a sinus headache and took advil. It kept up for a week and I had to fly back to Denver for another 2 weeks. After I landed, I told one of the guys my head was pounding and he gave me enough aspirin to last a month. Started taking those everyday thinking it was the altitude like everyone was saying. On Friday, I left for Chicago and thought my head was going to come off.I stayed in bed all weekend, called in sick Monday and my wife called the doctor. Doc said come in and she sent me for a cat scan. Well, a neurosurgeon came out and told me I had a major bleed in the brain and off I went to surgery. Surgery lasted about 10 hours and boy, I thought I had a headache before. Cried when I saw half my head shaved.Well after I got out of the hospital, doc told me the bleed pushed my brain over 9cmand it was wait and see. Well, still waiting. It left me with migraines, short term memory problems, concentration difficulty and slight balance problem. Doc said I should have been dead walking into the hospital, so in that regard I consider myself lucky.Email Tom
