He's flying toward help, tonight

Good news for U.S. Army Spec. Richie Gegeckas.

By midnight tonight, Gegeckas should be on a military medical-transport plane out of northern Afghanistan, headed for Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. D.C.  Hopefully, he will get the care at Walter Reed that he's not been getting at his base in Afghanistan, where he contracted leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease caused by the bite of infected sand flies.

As I wrote in my column on Tuesday, Gegeckas' case of the flesh-eating disease has steadily worsened since it first made its nasty appearance in early September.  A hideous-looking sore the width of a lemon and almost a half-inch deep had opened on his thigh; a smaller one ravaged his calf. Gegeckas has lost 15 pounds in the past two weeks, his lymph glands are swollen and he is having trouble walking. No one on his base seemed to know how to treat the disease, which prompted his mom, Philly Police Ofc. Robin Zaborowski, to contact the Daily News for help.

Within 24 hours of Richie's story hitting print in the Daily News, he learned he was to be sent to Walter Reed. After an initial stop at a military hospital in Germany, he will be admiited to Water Reed, where he'll spend four to five weeks so he he can be monitored as he recieves meds to treat his disease.  Walter Reed's infectious-diseases expert told me that the drugs can cause severe side effects - pancreatitis, hepatitis and abnormal heart rhythms among them - so thank goodness he'll be in a place that has handled leishmaniasis before.

Zaborowski told me today how relieved she is (me, too) that her son's condition will finally get the attention it needs.

If you get to read this, Spec. Gegeckas, godspeed and get well soon. And thank you for your service.