Airline mechanic comes to the rescue for vet with broken prosthetic leg

Last month, Afghanistan war veteran Taylor Morris, a quadruple amputee, slipped at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport, twisting his left prosthetic knee out of place.

Unable to fix the leg – the wrench needed to do so was in his checked luggage – Morris was left with a crooked stride.

Walking wasn't easy – and he still had eight hours of travel ahead of him.

Fortunately, an airline mechanic came to the rescue.

Morris' fiancée, Danielle, shared the story on Morris' blog.

"So we started asking any maintenance or airport management we saw if they had a metric Allen wrench. A couple of people looked for us but no luck … Someone told us our last option would be to call the Las Vegas County and hope that they have time to bring one over to the airport before we had to board," she wrote.

"When we were making the call and getting shuffled from person to person, another airport employee overheard what we were looking for and said he had standard Allen wrenches on him and would see if that would work. By the luck of all that is holy, one of the standard Allen wrenches worked!! We popped of the knee from the socket, twisted the joint, put back on the knee, and tightened up all the pieces! It wasn’t perfect but it was about 90% better, which allowed for a much smoother traveling day."

American Airlines identified the Good Samaritan as their lead aircraft mechanic, Keith Duffner.

Duffner first saluted the veteran, then carefully began work on the broken knee.

"It was nice to give something to an individual who gives a lot to his country and his community," Duffner told FOX5.

He explained how he repaired the prosthetic:

"I had to loosen four or five screws and then remove the lower leg and put it back together with the foot aligned," he said, adding that he'd never worked on a prosthetic limb before.

A photo of Duffner repairing Morris' leg went viral.

Duffner's daughter, Kayla Erikson, praised her dad in the comment section of Morris' blog:

"The airport mechanic is my dad! I'm so glad he was able to help you guys out!! He's always been an incredible man!! God Bless!!"

"It's been a little bit strange, and to me it's welcomed news to see something good in the press once in a while," Duffner said of all the attention.

He quickly turned the attention back to Morris:

"It wasn't much that I did compared to what our military does when they go on a tour. They are away from their families and are in harm's way for long tours, and some come back injured. And some come back and have a long recovery," he said.

Morris lost his limbs in an IED blast on May 3, 2012, in Afghanistan. He chronicles his road to recovery on his blog and on Facebook.