As the 6-foot, 300-pound truck driver recalls rescuing a child minutes after a bomb crumbled the federal building, the gentle giant's voice cracks and his eyes fill with tears.
"There were so many children that were hurt and that were killed," said Richard McKnight, who had just finished paying a traffic ticket with his wife a few blocks from the building when the bomb exploded.Fifteen children were among those killed and six remain hospitalized. Four children are missing,the medical examiner said Friday.
"Christopher was the only child I held in my arms," said Mc-Knight. "I thank God that he's alive today. I will always, always remember Christopher and Christopher's face."
McKnight didn't know that the 44-pound boy he carried to an ambulance was 5-year-old Christopher Nguyen until he recognized him on a television newscast Thursday, recovering in Children's Hospital.
He telephoned the hospital. "I wanted to know, I wanted to see, I wanted to meet," said McKnight, 42, who lives in Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City.
In a tearful reunion Thursday, McKnight met Christopher's mother, Phuong Nguyen, and his father, Thu Nguyen. Mrs. Nguyen hugged McKnight and held his hand. Nguyen and McKnight embraced.
"When I first stepped in the room and saw Christopher, I definitely realized it was the child in my arms," said McKnight. "I was just overwhelmed. I was glad that he was alive."
"You're a hero to us," Phuong Nguyen told McKnight.
"I don't consider myself a hero," McKnight said. "I just consider myself a person that has some medical background and knew that I could be of service to my city. I was just a small person that helped rescue Christopher."
McKnight said that in the late 1970s he drove ambulances in Oklahoma City. In the 1980s, when he was living in Dallas, he worked as an emergency medical technician and helped rescue victims from two Delta Air Lines crashes.
Christopher was in fair condition Thursday with multiple bruises of the brain, severe cuts on his head and some possible bruises of his heart and lungs, said Jake Lowrey, a hospital spokesman.
"His condition is improving a lot," his mother said.
He has been in and out of consciousness the past few days. One thing he seems to recognize is his favorite toy, a red Power Ranger, as he reaches out his right hand and tries to hold on to one of the legs or arms for a few seconds. Christopher has been having nightmares, shaking and screaming, his mother said.