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Quick action at assembly saves vet's life
Friday, June 26, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by EMILY BARNES
Robert E. Lee Morgan III chats with Chief Petty Officer Courtney Thompson, 18, of La Plata High School's U.S. Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps this week outside of the Harry White Wilmer American Legion Post 82 in La Plata. Thompson helped save Morgan's life in May when he suffered a heart attack at an NJROTC award ceremony at the school.
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It wasn't scripted but it definitely had a storybook ending.
The day started out normally enough May 8 for Robert E. Lee Morgan III, a U.S. Army veteran and former commander of the Harry White Wilmer American Legion Post 82 in La Plata. As he has done for the past 10 years or so, he left his La Plata home last month to go to La Plata High School to present awards to cadets serving with the U.S. Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.
As Morgan approached the podium to present the awards he began to stumble and then fell backward against a wall.
Morgan, 68, had suffered a heart attack and thanks to the quick actions of a cadet, retired firefighter, a gunnery sergeant with the NJROTC program and a nurse he survived.
Chief Petty Officer Courtney Thompson, 18, retired firefighter and emergency medical technician Tony Exline, Gunnery Sgt. Clive Bailey and Bridgett Higgs, an emergency department nurse at Civista Medical Center in La Plata, rushed to Morgan's side to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and then use an automatic exterior defibrillator to jumpstart his heart, said retired U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ron Fry, the senior naval science instructor at the high school.
Exline, whose 15-year-old son, Jonathan, is in the NJROTC program at La Plata, said having an AED at the school helped save Morgan's life.
"I did 20 years with Prince George's County Fire Department and normally a patient is so far gone by the time that you use an AED there's not much of a chance of saving them," he said. "Having the AED right there at the school was critical."
Evelyn Arnold, the school's principal, said there are four AEDs at La Plata High School. In fact, every high school in the county has the units in the event one of them might be needed during athletic events, she said.
Arnold said she is proud of everyone who responded so swiftly during the incident.
"The thing that I was most proud of is that everyone remained calm," she said. "It just worked like clockwork. Everything went together perfectly ... I was proud of Courtney and all of the kids."
Morgan returned to the school May 26 and presented the American Legion JROTC General Military Excellence Award to cadet Lt.Travis Gragan and the American Legion Scholastic Excellence award to cadet Lt. Cmdr. Jake Medina, Arnold said.
Thompson reacted admirably when Morgan showed signs of distress, Fry said, adding that he and Arnold presented her with a Meritorious Achievement Award for her swift response during the incident.
"Courtney kept everybody calm and moved everyone outside," Fry said, adding that everyone's swift response to Morgan's plight was remarkable.
"It couldn't have gone any more perfectly," he said. "There was an immediate response. All of the right people were there."
Thompson said she did not do CPR on Morgan although she is trained to perform the technique because she is a lifeguard. Instead, she set aside the device she was using to videotape the award ceremony and helped to stabilize Morgan and clear the gymnasium so that emergency medical technicians from the Charles County Volunteer Rescue Squad and other volunteer units could quickly enter the room and take care of Morgan.
Thompson, who will begin her senior year at the school in August, recalled the moments before Morgan had the heart attack.
"He was coming up to the podium to present an award to one of the cadets," she said. "He had a cane and he took four or five steps and then he started to stumble backwards clutching his chest. Gunny [Bailey] grabbed him and Mr. Exline and Bridget Higgs started CPR. I tried to get him to talk to me."
Morgan said he only remembers starting to walk up to the podium and the next thing he knew he woke up at Civista Medical Center. From there he was flown to Washington Hospital Center where doctors found an artery leading to his heart that was 95 percent blocked.
"I'm very, very grateful to everyone who helped me," he said, adding the blocked artery was taken care of and now he is doing fine. "I'm glad that they had a defibrillator at the school."
Thompson said she kept talking to Morgan and kept his feet elevated until the volunteer EMTs arrived.
"I wanted to make sure that he was still responding," she said. "He stopped breathing and then they began CPR. They brought him back for a couple of minutes and then he went away again. The defibrillator brought him back and he started talking."
Thompson said her nerves reacted to the incident after Morgan was transported to Civista.
"I was shaking," she said. "I knew that I had helped save someone's life. I thought I would panic in a situation like that but when something like this happens you don't think about it. You just think about helping the person."
Morgan's mom, Amy, said she isn't surprised that her daughter responded quickly to the emergency.
"She always jumps right in to help," she said. "She reacts quickly. I'm very proud of her."
Thompson said she encourages her friends to learn CPR.
"Some of my friends have learned CPR since it happened," she said. "It comes in handy."
"I'm certainly glad that Courtney and the others were there," Morgan said. "If it wasn't for all of you I probably wouldn't have made it."
Morgan's wife, Eileen, said she is grateful to all of the folks who reacted quickly to help her husband, who is disabled because of a serious tractor-trailer accident in 1970.
"Thank you so much because he wouldn't be here if not for you," she said. "He's a very lucky person."
