Today, it can take about eight weeks to recover from a heart surgerythat splits the sternum bone.

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His injuries included a broken back, a collapsed lung, torn cartilage throughout his sternum and a two-inch laceration on his forehead.

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"I like to feel the rumble in my sternum and the vibrations in the back of my throat when I sing, " she says.

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Kidney cancer had spread to his lungs and one tumor became so big it ate through his sternum and bulged right through the surface of his skin.

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But Mr Hern, now 73, believes radiation exposure on that day and four others is the cause of his diabetes, the spurs growing on his sternum and the death of his 13-year-old daughter from cancer.

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His son had suffered a compound broken leg, broken ankles, broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken sternum, a broken neck, a broken nose, crushed eye sockets, a crushed forehead and a fractured skull, Bothe said.

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