ARLINGTON, Texas -- Kenneth Murray had to hit the brakes when he and his girlfriend, Val, were on their way home from church July 7 in Norman.
A car swerved in front of the Oklahoma linebacker’s car and stopped. The driver ran out to help a lady who was on the ground and unconscious, and another woman who was standing over her. The woman on the ground was bleeding from her head and the other was making frantic noises, unable to pronounce any words. When he hopped out of his car, Murray realized they were both deaf, so he started to perform CPR.
“She looked like she was dead to be honest,” Murray told The Daily at Big 12 Media Days Monday. “Immediately going through my head was to start CPR. I had my girlfriend call 911.”
Murray performed CPR for minutes while Val stood close by on the curb while calling the paramedics. The woman looking after her was frantic and panicking, but Murray persisted. He knew he had to keep going until an ambulance arrived. For a minute, she was unresponsive. Then suddenly, she was awake.
Murray performed CPR for several minutes before she woke up and began breathing again.
“We got her back, got her breathing,” Murray said. “We got her to the point where she was blinking a little bit.”
After the paramedics showed up, Murray let them take over. He had to move his car out of the road, and he didn’t want to be the center of attention. Murray never found out the woman’s name. She was taken to a hospital, fully conscious.
Murray isn’t new to performing CPR. He learned how to do it before he came to OU, when he was around 12 or 13 years old, recalls Murray’s dad, Kenneth Murray Sr., who is a preacher. Murray worked summers as a counselor at the R.E.A.C.H. Program (Restoring Educating Adults and Children with Hope) in Texas, where he learned CPR in a class.
But this was the first time he’s ever had to use it in a real life situation.
“I was trained in it before,” Murray said. “It came in handy seeing that lady on the ground.”
Murray Sr. didn’t know what his son did until almost two weeks after it happened.
“I’m wondering why he didn’t tell me,” Murray Sr. told The Daily. “That’s kind of the way he is. He just does things and keeps moving. He’s not a big credit person. He’s not looking for any glory or anything of that nature.”
