Couple adopts life-saver

12:24pm Thursday 4th September 2008

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A NATIVE American doctor who gave a West Oxfordshire tourist his only shot of a life-saving drug was later adopted by the couple.

Twenty years ago, Maureen and Albert Morgan were on a driving holiday in the wilds of Idaho, America, when company director Mr Morgan, 85, suffered a heart attack.

Mr Morgan was taken to an Indian reserve hospital, where Dr David Baines quickly realised what was wrong, and administered his only shot of TPA, a $1,500 drug, that immediately stabilized him.

A year after that first meeting, Dr Baines came to the UK to visit the couple, who had become close friends.

It was during that stay he asked them to adopt him.

They agreed - and two decades later, the couple have four grandchildren, two from Dr Baines and his wife, Heidi, and two from their other adopted son, David Morgan.

It was these children who inspired Mrs Morgan, 75, to take up writing. While she was sick with life-threatening cancer, she wrote a book, Granny's Bedtime Stories, which has become a overnight success, selling 20,000 copies to raise money for several hospices.

This year, Katharine House Hospice is set to benefit from the book - inspired by Mrs Morgan's multi-cultural family.

Describing their first meeting with Dr Baines, Mrs Morgan said: "Albert was unconscious. I was driving along, when we came upon a little settlement.

"All that was there was a logging mill, truckers' cafe, and post office.

"I ran inside and said I needed medical help."

Luckily one of the staff had recently bought some oxygen, and they were able to give it to Mr Morgan while they waited for an ambulance.

The ambulance then wanted to take Mr Morgan 60 miles to the nearest hospital, but Mrs Morgan, of The Close, Salford, said her husband would die unless he was seen sooner.

Instead, it took them to a nearer native American hospital, where they met 52-year-old David Baines.

Wearing a Hawaiian shirt and hair in long braids, Dr Baines realised quickly what was wrong, and injected his only shot of TPA.

Mr Morgan was later treated at a Washington hospital, where he underwent a double heart-bypass operation.

At the hospital, there was also a race to contact the couple's adopted son, David Morgan, who was travelling in Thailand.

After several missed messages, he was able to dash to his father's bedside.

On Dr Baines' first visit to England, he confided to the couple that he had a troubled childhood.

And out of the blue - just days before he left - he asked Mrs Morgan if she would adopt him.

She said: "I said you are a bit big for that, but he said 'I need you'.

"We would never let him down, that's for sure.

"There we were out in the wilderness, and he saved Albert's life - is it any wonder why I'm grateful to David Baines."

For a copy of the book, call 01295 811866, or visit the website www.katharinehouse.co.uk