Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris puts on his cape and saves the day at a Las Vegas pool last weekend.
Morris’ wife Nicole posted the details of the incident on her Instagram page on Wednesday. She said that their family were at Encore hotel in Las Vegas when Morris saw a 3-year-old boy nearly drowning in the pool. A lifeguard was able to pull the boy from the pool, but he was unconscious and needed CPR. The longtime defensive coordinator intervened to help save the boy’s life with something he learned at a recent Rams training session.
“I saw people calling 911, so my first question was, where is the AED?” Morris told ESPN on Wednesday. “When I got back, we had a doctor on site that was able to start the compressions. I was able to hand the AED to him, get it open for him, put the pads on the child, and he ended up being OK.”
Credit to the Rams
Morris gave credit to the Rams vice president of sports medicine and performance Reggie Scott. He recently facilitated a course for CPR, AED and first aid training. Morris says the course helped him be aware of the proper protocols and importance of AED, which stands for automatic external defibrillator.
An AED is used to analyze a person’s heart rhythm when they are experiencing cardiac arrest and deliver an appropriate electric shock to restore their heart back to an appropriate rhythm.
Morris mentioned how Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on the field during a game in January and Bucs linebacker Shaquil Barrett’s 2-year-old daughter recently drowning helped increased awareness among coaches and players to be prepared for unexpected emergencies.
“I’m just thankful I knew what to do,” Morris said to ESPN. “You just never know when you’re going to need that stuff.”
Life-Saving Offseason
Morris is not the only NFL personnel member to help to save someone’s life this offseason. In March, Vikings wide receiver K.J. Osborn helped a man who’d been in a wreck in Austin, Texas. Osborn was an Uber passenger when he witnessed a car crashing into a pillar on the side of the road. The car began to go up in flames, and he jumped out to pull the man out of the car along with two other men nearby. It was later discovered that Osborn pulled reality star Nelson Thomas out the burning car.
Both Morris and Osborn were in the right place at the right time and should consider teaming up for a training class to teach life-saving skills.
