Raheem Morris was a hero this weekend.
The Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator, who is a New Jersey native who graduated from Irvington High, saved a 3-year-old child from drowning in a pool at a Las Vegas hotel.
His wife Nicole detailed the events in posts on Instagram on Wednesday, and Morris spoke to ESPN about the incident:
Morris was at the Encore Las Vegas with his family when he saw a young boy drowning in the hotel pool. According to Morris’ wife, Nicole, who posted about the situation on her Instagram page Wednesday, the 3-year-old boy had no pulse when he was taken out of the pool by his father and brought over to a lifeguard.
As the lifeguard began performing CPR compressions, Morris said he rushed over to see how he could help.
“I saw people calling 911 so my first question was, where is the AED?” Morris told ESPN on Wednesday, referring to an automatic external defibrillator, which Morris then ran to retrieve. “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.”
The child was discharged from a local hospital 24 hours later, according to Nicole Morris’ post on social media.
“I’m just thankful I knew what to do,” Raheem Morris told ESPN. “You just never know when you’re going to need that stuff.”
Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.