City Council member collapses in Memphis

Council members were waiting for a bus in front of the downtown Memphis Marriott Monday evening when Fred Harrison suddenly lost consciousness and began to fall backwards into a fountain.

Mayor Wallace Cartwright was sitting beside Harrison at the edge of the fountain and managed to grab his feet as he began to fall backwards into the water.

"We were lucky we were standing right there beside him when it happened," the mayor said.

Assisted by councilmen Lee Roy Cunningham and Al Stephenson, they were able to pull Harrison out of the water and lay him flat on the pavement.

That's when they noticed that Harrison was not breathing.

Cartwright said that's when he remembered a trick from his days of managing high school football teams.

"If somebody got knocked out, you could take them by the belt and pick up in the belt right quick, they would catch their breath, and that's what I did."

When Cartwright pulled, Harrison took a quick breath and started coughing.

"It scared the fool out of us," Cartwright said, adding that council members had no warning that Harrison was going to collapse. "We didn't know what was going to happen, everybody there was under the impression that he had a heart attack or something."

Harrison was awake and responding when the ambulance arrived, and was able to give Cartwright phone numbers to contact his wife, Jean. City manager Ed Craig accompanied Harrison to the hospital and stayed with him until his daughter, Kenda, arrived from Murfreesboro.

Harrison was checked out by doctors and was back at his hotel room by 10:30 that same evening. Harrison was dressed and ready to go the next morning, Cartwright said.

"He was Fred! He was back!"

The council members had been in Memphis attending a Tennessee Municipal League conference, and were waiting to go to dinner when the incident occurred.

Harrison appeared to be in good health at Wednesday's special called meeting, and joked about the incident with fellow members.

Cartwright said Thursday it was a combination of the heat and low blood sugar that caused Harrison, who he said is a diabetic, to pass out.

Harrison could not be reached for comment.