Editor's Report

Sons to the Rescue

Posted

As Michael Meigh recalls, he was doing some work in his backyard June 16—the day after Father’s Day, in fact—when he felt like he needed a break from pouring cement footings. It was hot outside and he went inside to cool off in the air conditioning.

Meigh asked his son, Sean, 19, to get him a bottle of cold water. With his shirt off, he broke out in a cold sweat. After a little while, though, he started to feel a little better, or at least that’s what he thought. The 51-year-old dad figured he had overdone it and was dehydrated or suffering from heatstroke.

When Sean got ready to take a shower, he asked his younger brother Connor, 11, to keep an eye on their father and to call him if there were any problems. The last thing Michael Meigh remembers telling Connor was, “It’s going to be alright. I’m just a little dizzy.”

In fact, everything was not OK. Those words of his were the last he would utter before waking up in Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern where he was taken after suffering a heart attack. Doctors there inserted a stent in his blocked artery, and he spoke with me this week from his home in Garnerville.

Meigh got there in good time due in large part to the quick-thinking and fast action of his boys. Meigh said he remembers Connor looking at him strangely just before he passed out, probably realizing that he was not breathing correctly, he figures. Within moments after his father faltered, Connor got his brother out of the shower and dialed 911 for an ambulance.

Getting back to the living room swiftly, Sean was able to utilize the CPR training he recently renewed for his job as a lifeguard at one of the local pools in the town of Haverstraw.

“My adrenaline just kicked in and I did what I instinctly knew I should do,” Sean said in a news release sent out by Good Samaritan.

“It never crossed my mind that I would have to actually save my father’s life—and if it weren’t for knowing CPR, I wouldn’t have been able to,” said Sean, who added that everyone should learn how to perform CPR.

Marian Meigh, the wife of Michael and mother of Sean and Connor and the couple’s two other sons, Michael, 22, and Kevin, 15, said God put her boys in “exactly the right spot” that day.

In fact, Connor had stayed home from school that morning with a cough that had aggravated his asthma. Fortunately, Sean did not have to work that day.

Mrs. Meigh, a nurse, said that when she got home that day, one of the police officers told her that the 911 call had been placed by her 11-year-old son, who was then stationed outside by his brother to await the ambulance.

Her husband, 51, works as a police officer for Amtrak. He is still at home recuperating, pending the results of further medical testing to be done in the coming weeks.

Having parents who regularly deal with emergencies must have rubbed off on the boys, noted Mrs. Meigh, a catechist at St. Gregory the Great in Garnerville, the family’s parish.

“They naturally picked that up,” she said. “They were willing and able to jump into an emergency situation and take action immediately.”

Both parents said they were very proud of their boys and grateful for the expert care Meigh received at Good Samaritan where he remained for four days before returning home.

For their efforts, Sean and Connor will receive the Heartsaver Hero Award from the American Heart Association of the Hudson Valley in a presentation to be made at Good Samaritan in September.

“I can’t express how proud I am of them,” said their mom.

She added that she felt “so blessed” to have four boys, and to have her husband “sitting next to me.”