"It's Thanksgiving and it's like, 'Wow, I have a lot to be thankful for,'" he said this week. "I've got my future. Derrick and all those people saved me. Now my surgeon has given me my future."
Flanary, who since has turned 65, is a free-lance camera operator who has a wide variety of assignments, including sporting events, commercials and corporate video. He was at Busch Stadium on Sept. 29, the final day of the baseball regular season, preparing to help provide video to Chicago television of the announcement that Cubs manager Joe Maddon and the team had decided to part ways.