LOS ANGELES -- Five years ago, San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was in a coma clinging to life at LAC+USC Medical Center after being beaten to a pulp outside a Los Angeles Dodgers opening game.
On Saturday, he received a hero's welcome when he returned to thank trauma unit doctors, nurses and staff for saving his and the lives of thousands of other near-death patients."They pummeled me and beat me -- good," recalled the 47-year-old Capitola resident, speaking about his assault by two men in March 2011 outside Dodger Stadium. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.