Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris has shared a moving reunion with a doctor and the young boy they helped save from drowning in a Las Vegas resort pool last month.
Morris, 46, was on vacation with his family at the Encore Hotel when a 3-year-old child named Wyatt Stanley was suddenly pulled from the water.
“I’m sitting and my kids are all screaming, I see Wyatt laying by the pool and he’s blue,” Morris said. Hello ABC America. “I just wanted to help, and I could just feel the panic of it all. And I looked at the lifeguard and I said, ‘Where’s the DEA?’
Morris was aware of automated external defibrillators after he and his fellow Rams staff underwent emergency training following Damar Hamlin’s on-field cardiac arrest in January. Buffalo Bills safety was resuscitated by team medical personnel, who administered CPR and AED, and Hamlin spent the next few months raising awareness of this vital training.
It was this training that helped save Wyatt’s life.
Morris shared a touching reunion with a doctor and the young boy on ABC’s GMA
Raheem Morris (left) and Dr Andrew Oleksyn (right) are credited with saving Wyatt’s life
Wyatt’s long-term prognosis remains uncertain, due to his time underwater
“It’s really a miracle when I try to understand everything that happened,” Wyatt’s mother, Kelseigh, told GMA.
She and her husband Joe described the terrifying moment their eldest child alerted them to Wyatt.
“I was sitting in the chair, and my 7-year-old came up to me and he said, ‘Wyatt, Wyatt, he’s underwater,'” Joe Stanley said. fetch, there was no heartbeat, no pulse. When I picked him up, he was face down with his nose towards the pool. I realized he was limp.
Andrew Oleksyn, an Illinois-based doctor, was also by the pool and sprang into action.
“I ran and when I approached Wyatt, I knew, being an ER doctor, he was in trouble,” Oleksyn said. “I immediately started doing chest compressions, assessing the child, taking his pulse. At that time, the child had no pulse.
It was then that Morris returned with the AED device, which was located nearby. He quickly administered the AED between compressions from Oleksyn, and within moments Wyatt’s pulse returned.
“When he says, ‘He’s got a pulse,’ I started clapping,” Morris said.
Wyatt, 3, is pictured with his father, Joe, and mother, Kelseigh, in a GMA segment
Dr Andrew Oleksyn is pictured holding Wyatt, 3, a month after the near drowning
The Encore Las Vegas pool is pictured in 2014, when the venue hosted the Stanley Cup
Wyatt was rushed to hospital shortly after and, as seen in the footage with Morris, appears to be improving, although the long-term prognosis remains uncertain.
“It’s hard to say exactly what his future will be because he’s been underwater for so long,” Kelseigh said.
The smiling 3-year-old shared a hug in the segment with the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach and Oleksyn, who were both called a “miracle” by Wyatt’s mother.
“I got emotional in that moment because not only did you save Wyatt, you saved his family,” Oleksyn said.
“We’re just so happy Raheem is here and Dr. Andrew is here,” Kelseigh said. “God placed them all right where they needed to be.”
Morris is among several NFL insiders to receive CPR/AED and first aid training following Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on the field in Cincinnati.
Hamlin not only survived, but plans to return to the NFL in 2023 after the cardiac arrest, which was attributed to an episode of commotio cordis, resulting from a blow to the chest.
Morris helped save the life of a child who was drowning in a Las Vegas resort pool last month, and now he credits first aid training following Damar Hamlin’s collapse
Supporters have poured $10 million into online fundraising campaigns, which he donated to his charity, the Chasing M’s Foundation, which focuses in part on supporting CPR and AED training .
The NFL has also embraced the cause, with several teams holding training sessions to have employees certified in CPR and AEDs.
In addition to Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, Morris previously told ESPN that the drowning death of Bucs linebacker Shaquil Barrett’s two-year-old daughter in April further heightened his awareness and preparedness. Morris, who is not directly quoted on the subject in ESPN’s article, left the Buccaneers in 2011, seven seasons before Barrett joined the team.
Arrayah Barrett is believed to have fallen into the family pool one morning in April, leading to tragedy.
