Tennessee man home for Thanksgiving after collapsing at Atlanta Airport

By IYANI HUGHES

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    ATLANTA (WGCL) — A Tennessee doctor is home with his family for the Thanksgiving holiday after a scary experience while traveling through Atlanta Airport.

Atlanta U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers successfully administered life-saving aid and resuscitated Dr. HC Wheatly, when he collapsed after arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Nov.18.

He was aboard a flight coming from Costa Rica.

Friday evening, CBP Officer Darrell Earnhardt witnessed Wheatly, 74, stumble and collapse while in line at CBP’s federal inspection station. Earnhardt immediately responded and found the traveler to be unconscious. He alerted other CBP officers to call 911 as he retrieved a nearby Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

Officer Earnhardt then observed that Wheatly had stopped breathing and detected no pulse. Earnhardt, joined by CBP officers Ryan Shaw, Plaku and a good Samaritan traveler identified as a trained paramedic, initiated life-saving efforts including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

“The immediate and decisive actions by our Customs and Border Protection officers, and particularly the incredible first-aid response demonstrated by our officers, helped save this man’s life,” said, Paula Rivera, CBP’s Area Port Director Atlanta. “On any given day our officers across the country are ready and willing to help those in need.”

Officer Earnhardt administered three AED shocks between CPR rotations, which revived Wheatly. He then began to breathe on his own and officers detected a pulse. The CBP officers and paramedic continued life-sustaining aid until ATL airport Emergency Medical Services arrived. EMS then transported Wheatly and his family to an area hospital.

ATL CBPOs and Dr Wheatly(l-r) CBP officers Plaku, Shaw, Dr. “HC” Wheatly

and officer Earnhardt outside Atlanta hospital

At the request of the family, the responding CBP officers met with Mr. Wheatly, his wife and daughter outside the Atlanta hospital upon his discharge. The Wheatly family headed home to Tennessee for follow-up treatment with a concrete reminder that we all have something to be thankful for this holiday season.

“I saw the officers working to save my husband and was thinking the worst,” said, Connie Wheatly, wife of Dr. HC Wheatly. “There is no way our family can thank those guys enough for everything they did.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection border security mission is led at ports of entry by CBP officers from the Office of Field Operations.

CBP officers screen international travelers and cargo and search for illicit narcotics, unreported currency, weapons, counterfeit consumer goods, prohibited agriculture, and other illicit products that could potentially harm the American public, U.S. businesses, and our nation’s safety and economic vitality. Learn more what CBP accomplished during “A Typical Day” in 2020.

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