BAR HARBOR — Joey Morrison made it to school Monday morning — but not before stopping to help save a woman’s life in Bar Harbor.

Only 12 years old, Joey reacted with calm maturity to an elderly woman’s call for help. He began his early morning by delivering the Bangor Daily News to neighbors near his Snow Street home, as he has for the last two years. Along his route, Joey heard the cries of a woman from the door of her residence. Clearly in distress, the woman gasped that she could not breathe.

Joey then ran to the emergency room at Mount Desert Island Hospital, about a block from the woman’s house, to get help. The Bar Harbor police were alerted and an ambulance was dispatched.

According to Carroll Reiff, director of Development and Public Relations at the hospital, the woman “was in acute respiratory distress” when she arrived at the hospital. “She clearly would have died if Joey hadn’t handled it so calmly and adultly.”

Reiff said that the woman, who suffers from pulmonary edema, has been in and out of the hospital several times in the last few years. “She had her coat on when she cried out to Joey,” Reiff added, “evidently standing outside because she was starved for air. Her lungs were filling up with fluid.”

Reiff and the nurse on duty in the emergency room that morning, Jean Young, both credit Joey’s “calm and collected manner” for the woman’s survival.

Word of Joey’s quick thinking had begun to spread through the classrooms at the Emerson School Tuesday when he talked of his busy Monday morning. “At first I was scared and sort of panicky,” he said.

“Then I realized I just needed to go to the emergency room for help, and I did.”

Joey is the son of David and Pat Morrison of Bar Harbor.

By Kathy Harbour Hancock Bureau

BAR HARBOR — Joey Morrison made it to school Monday morning — but not before stopping to help save a woman’s life in Bar Harbor.

Only 12 years old, Joey reacted with calm maturity to an elderly woman’s call for help. He began his early morning by delivering the Bangor Daily News to neighbors near his Snow Street home, as he has for the last two years. Along his route, Joey heard the cries of a woman from the door of her residence. Clearly in distress, the woman gasped that she could not breathe.

Joey then ran to the emergency room at Mount Desert Island Hospital, about a block from the woman’s house, to get help. The Bar Harbor police were alerted and an ambulance was dispatched.

According to Carroll Reiff, director of Development and Public Relations at the hospital, the woman “was in acute respiratory distress” when she arrived at the hospital. “She clearly would have died if Joey hadn’t handled it so calmly and adultly.”

Reiff said that the woman, who suffers from pulmonary edema, has been in and out of the hospital several times in the last few years. “She had her coat on when she cried out to Joey,” Reiff added, “evidently standing outside because she was starved for air. Her lungs were filling up with fluid.”

Reiff and the nurse on duty in the emergency room that morning, Jean Young, both credit Joey’s “calm and collected manner” for the woman’s survival.

Word of Joey’s quick thinking had begun to spread through the classrooms at the Emerson School Tuesday when he talked of his busy Monday morning. “At first I was scared and sort of panicky,” he said.

“Then I realized I just needed to go to the emergency room for help, and I did.”

Joey is the son of David and Pat Morrison of Bar Harbor.