Julie Yates
Knowing CPR can save a life, and no one knows better than Carol Morgan.
Morgan, a Pryor hair stylist, helped resuscitate a 64-year-old co-worker who suffered cardiac arrest. Morgan, who is 68, has known CPR for 15 to 20 year, but she never had to use it until Sue Flood collapsed Wednesday, July 15, at the Innovations In Hair Beauty Salon.
Four stylists were working that day. It was approximately 12:30 p.m., and each one had a customer.
Morgan said Sue’s customer, Jane, had color in her hair. Sue went back into the kitchen to eat her lunch while Jane’s hair was processing. The salon manicurist was in the breakroom with her, but stepped out as Sue finished eating.
Morgan said Sue got up to take her lunch dishes to the sink. The phone rang, and the manicurist went into the kitchen to answer it.
The call was for Sue. The manicurist turned to see Sue going down. Sue
crumpled to the floor by the sink.
Morgan said the manicurist started screaming for help and hung up on the customer to dial 911.
Morgan, who was combing out her customer’s hair, rushed to the kitchen with the other women.
Sue was lying on the floor. There was no movement or response. Someone felt her pulse and said, “She’s gone.”
Sue’s customer began chest compressions. When Jane had to stop, Morgan took over.
Morgan repeatedly delivered chest compressions and rescue breathing to Sue’s unresponsive body. When performing CPR, Morgan said one worry is that you will hurt the person. She said there is always a possibility of breaking a rib or bruising the person, but it is better they have a broken rib and still be alive.
“I wasn’t scared until it was all over,” said Morgan. Afterward, she wondered if she had done everything right.
Morgan said her own customer went outside to wave the emergency workers to the door when they pulled in.
When the EMS team arrived, Sue was just beginning to breathe again and move around.
She looked up at the other women gathered around her and said, “I didn’t fall.”
A MESTA ambulance transported Sue to the Pryor fire station, where she was flown to Hillcrest Medical Center.
Morgan said one of the EMS workers told her that Sue had cardiac arrest. Morgan said when cardiac arrest occurs, everything shuts down, often with no warning.
Morgan said there were no clues that Sue was ill. She said Sue is a very active, energetic person who maintains a healthy diet and lifestyle.
“You just don’t know,” Morgan said.
In addition to being a hair stylist, Morgan works at Central State Consumer Services of Oklahoma. Because she works with persons with disabilities, she is required to know CPR. She has to take the course annually to keep her Red Cross certification current.
Morgan had just taken her refresher course in May. She first learned CPR in 1998, when she worked for the Cherokee Nation headstart for a couple of years. After leaving that job, she didn’t keep it
updated until she began working for Central State.
“You always think, I’ll never be able to do that,” she said.
Morgan said she wants to encourage people to become CPR certified. She said you never know when you might need to use it.
“I feel in my heart the Lord put me in the right place at the right time,” she said. “He helped me remember all those steps.”
Morgan said “it was strange how everything fell into place.” She normally does not work past noon on Wednesdays. She happened to have the day off from her other job, which is why she stayed later at Innovations.
“I still think that God was watching over us that day,” she said.
When Morgan spoke with Sue later, Sue told her that she and Jane were celebrities at Hillcrest. The doctor was telling all his assistants how “two
70-year-old women” saved Sue’s life.
“It took some team effort,” Morgan said. “Everyone played a part.”
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, better known as CPR, is a combination of rescue breathing and chest compressions given to persons in cardiac arrest. When cardiac arrest occurs, the heart stops pumping blood. CPR can support a small amount of blood flow to the heart and brain to buy time until normal heart function is restored. (See www.americanheart.org for more details.)
The American Red Cross will offer CPR classes in Claremore Aug. 8 and 19 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. To sign up, visit www.tulsaredcross.org.
