Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
HERRIMAN — Every day for the past three years, things have pretty much been the same in Ryan White's AP government class at Herriman High School, until a particular Monday last month.
"The biggest thing I remember is Megan standing up and going straight back, hitting her head,” said Ryan White, Megan Brereton’s AP teacher.
Megan doesn’t remember much of what happened Dec. 12.
"My best friend sits right next to me, and I heard her scream my name as I was falling,” she said. “Like, I don't remember seeing her or anything, but I heard her scream my name before I hit my head, or after, I don't know."
Megan was on the floor of her classroom, not breathing.
"Any time you hit the back of your head hard enough, that can disrupt your internal organs; and I'm thinking that's why she stopped breathing," White said.
White would know. He's a CPR instructor with the Red Cross and a former paramedic with the United States Coast Guard.
“When you’re doing CPR on somebody you don’t know, it’s just training. You’re trying to save a life,” White said. “But when it is somebody that you do know, I’ll tell you, my blood pressure was up, pulse beating. By goodness, I was going to save this life.”
White has saved lives before. He was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
"During 9/11, we just wanted to come to the rescue and come to the aid of all Americans,” White said. “And here at Herriman High, I think it's evident that any other teacher would have done what I had done."
It's tough for him to talk about 9/11, but his experiences that day helped save Megan. She was unconscious for about 7 minutes, but White got her breathing again in just 30 seconds.
"It took me a long time to kind of process what happened because I was awake before the paramedics got there, but by the time they got there while doing all their stuff, is kind of when it hit me as to what had happened,” she said.
Megan still doesn't know exactly what happened to her. She said she has a history of not drinking enough water. She said doctors told her it could possibly be dehydration or sleep deprivation.
“I drink a lot more water than I used to, so that’s a good thing,” she said.
She's just happy she was in White's class when it happened.
"I didn't do anything any other teacher wouldn't have done, but I'm glad it was me because I was going to make sure (Megan was) going to stay here," White said.
Megan said she has always liked White as a teacher, but now their bond is even stronger. She even bought him a pack of Life Savers "because he's my lifesaver, he saved my life,” she said with excitement.
Sometimes, report cards aren't the only way to measure a teacher's success.
“I couldn’t imagine the school without Megan,” White said.
Contributing: Viviane Vo-Duc
