America's Army player becomes a hero

Paxton Galvanek is an ordinary American man. He likes computer games and war simulators like America's Army, he's never really been bothered about taking any medical training or working as a paramedic and he probably has to cope with a mother who constantly tells him how computer games are bad for him.

That didn't stop Paxton from becoming the hero of the hour though when he was privy to an atrocious car crash - in fact, Paxton attributes his life saving heroics to computer games he plays.

Driving home one night, Paxton and his wife could only watch as a driver lost control of an SUV and flipped it across the opposite lane multiple times. Paxton's wife immediately called the emergency services, while he ran to aid the injured passengers. He was able to effectively diagnose the critically injured people involved in the accident, then correctly treated as many people as he could until the ambulances arrived according to Kotaku.

Later interviewed on how he remained so calm under pressure, Paxton thanked computer games.

"I have received no prior medical training and can honestly say that because of the training and presentations within America's Army, I was able to help and possibly save the injured men. As I look back on the events of that day, the training that I received in the America's Army video game keeps coming to mind," said Paxton.

"I remember vividly in section four of the game's medic training, during the field medic scenarios, I had to evaluate the situation and place priority on the more critically wounded. In the case of this accident, I evaluated the situation and placed priority on the driver of the car who had missing fingers. I then recalled that in section two of the medic training, I learned about controlled bleeding. I noticed that the wounded man had severe bleeding that he could not control. I used a towel as a dressing and asked the man to hold the towel on his wound and to raise his hand above his head to lessen the blood flow which allowed me to evaluate his other injuries which included a cut on his head."

Thankfully, Paxton isn't a fan of the Soldier class in America's Army - if he had been then things could have gone horribly wrong!

We know that computer games aren't very realistic even at the best of times, but have you ever managed to learn real-life skills through a game? Personally, I thank the old Lucasarts adventure games for instilling me with patience, logic and a love of pirates and tentacles - but maybe you learned something different? Let us know in the forums.