LAS VEGAS — A former Atlanta Falcons coach helped saved a child from drowning with the training he received after a Buffalo Bills player’s on-field collapse.
Raheem Morris coached the Falcons defense and took over as interim head coach before he took a job with the Los Angeles Rams. While he was on vacation in Las Vegas, a life-changing experience brought his family, a doctor’s family and a child’s family all together.
On Friday, they reunited for the first time on “Good Morning America.”
“Truly a miracle,” Kelseigh Stanley told ABC News’ Matt Gutman.
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Wyatt Stanley nearly drowned at the pool in Encore Hotel in Vegas over the Memorial Day weekend. Joe Stanley told GMA that their 7-year-old son alerted them to the 3-year-old being in danger.
“He said, ‘Wyatt he’s under the water.’ There was no heartbeat. There was no pulse. When I picked him up, he was laying, he was actually face down his nose at the bottom of the pool.”
That is when Morris along with Dr. Andrew Oleksyn jumped in.
“My kids are all in the pool and I hear a scream. I see Wyatt laying poolside, and he’s blue,” Morris said. “I could just feel the panic of it all when you feel like you’re alone. I get to the desk and I asked where’s your AED machine?”
“I ran over to the pool. And when I approached Wyatt, being an ER physician I knew that he was in trouble,” Oleksyn said.
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Morris had just received AED machine training in January weeks after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed in a terrifying moment on the field. Oleksyn meanwhile started CPR.
“I can hear the same tone saying when he got the pulse. And shortly after that water spit out the kid’s mouth,” Morris told GMA. “When he says he has a pulse I started clapping.”
Wyatt went to the hospital and was released 24 hours later, according to Morris’ wife. Dr. Oleksyn checked on him in what he called an emotional visit.
How is Wyatt doing now?
“It’s hard to say you know, what exactly his future is going to be because he was under the water for so long. We are truly so happy that Raheem was there and Dr. Andrew was there. And truly again, miracle. God placed them all directly where they needed to be,” Kelseigh Stanley said.
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