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ROTTERDAM BOY SCOUT TO BE HONORED FOR QUICK THINKING (ROTTERDAM)
Posted on: 01/04/08
Ross Marvin, Spotlight Staff
email: marvinr@spotlightnews.com


Matthew March of Rotterdam with his mom, Melanie. Matthew March will be honored Monday, Jan. 7, at a regular meeting of the 105th Boy Scout Troop in Esperance. (Ross Marvin/Spotlight)



Matthew March of Rotterdam with his mom, Melanie. Matthew March will be honored Monday, Jan. 7, at a regular meeting of the 105th Boy Scout Troop in Esperance. (Ross Marvin/Spotlight)
A 12-year-old Rotterdam resident will be honored by the Boy Scouts of America next week for his role in saving his mother’s life last year.

Matthew March will receive a national certificate for meritorious actions and a cord of honor at an award ceremony that will take place Monday, Jan. 7, at a regular meeting of the 105th Boy Scout Troop in Esperance led by Scoutmaster Wayne Fink.

In early December 2006, March, a seventh-grade Schalmont Middle School student at the time, returned home on the bus to find his mother, Melanie March, passed out on the floor.

March’s mother was at home watching television with her 3-year-old son when she had an allergic reaction to a new medication.

“I had recently had a stroke,” said Melanie March. “The doctors were trying to get me on the right medication to prevent me from having another one. Apparently, the one I was prescribed was rejected by my body.”

As Melanie March attempted to walk to the bathroom, she collapsed on the floor and vomited. While her son was asleep on the couch, she lost consciousness for nearly two hours.

When her son Matthew came home, he started to look for his snowboard, but instead found his mother on the floor in the hallway. The boy took action immediately.

“I called my grandmother first and asked her to call the paramedics for help and then I e-mailed my dad since that’s the best way to get a hold of him,” said March. “Then I pulled together all of my mom’s medications so I could show the EMTs when they got there.”

March also tried successfully to wake his mother, but she did not stay conscious for long. While he waited for emergency assistance, March stayed at his mother’s side, cleaning her face and the floor where she had vomited and dabbing her forehead with a moist towel.

When emergency staff did arrive, March gave them all the information he had, and then stayed at home to watch his younger brother while the ambulance took his mother to the emergency room.

Doctors later told her she was severely dehydrated. After a brief stay in the hospital that lasted only a few hours, Melanie March was released.

“The administration of first aid is a major part of being a Boy Scout,” said Fink. “We practice our skills all the time and have a mandatory first aid merit badge. What Matthew did was implement the basic first aid strategies we teach in the Boy Scouts.”

Last year, March won the Pop Secor award from the 105th troop for the implementation of first aid training, which made him eligible for national recognition. The Otschodela Council of the Boy Scouts of America, a regional association decided the boy’s actions were worthy of national recognition and voted to give March a national cord of honor.

“We deemed his actions more than worthy of some recognition,” said Tom Wright, a member of the Otschodela Council. “In my 17 years on the council, we’ve only given three of these awards.”

These days, Melanie March is in better health and according to her, the events of that December day have brought her closer to her son.

“He does sometimes hold it over me that he saved my life, so I’ve bought him a fair number of brownie sundaes,” said Melanie March. “But I’m very proud and very impressed, and I thank him a lot for what he did.”

Now in the eighth grade, March enjoys sports, playing soccer for Schalmont in the fall, snowboarding at Maple Ski Ridge in the winter and wakeboarding in the summer.

And while most 12-year-olds haven’t saved a life, March doesn’t think of himself as a hero, just a guy who was in the right place at the right time.

“I was going to stay after school that day, but I decided to come home early,” he said. “It’s a good thing I did.”

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Scout honored for saving mom's life

1/9/2008
By Patsy Nicosia

It’s not easy being The Hero.
First, you’re so busy meeting-and-greeting that you can’t get to the sodas.
Then there’s all the photos—Do you dare ask the ‘camera lady’ to pass you a Coke?—and then remembering to breathe when the TV guy starts asking you questions…
But seventh-grader Matthew March took it all in stride Monday when he was honored with a national certificate for “meritorious actions” by the Boy Scouts of America for saving his mom, Melanie’s, life a little more than a year ago.
Matthew, a member of Esperance Troop 105, is one of just three Otschodela Council Scouts to receive the award in at least 17 years.
It was on December 13, 2006, that Mathew got home from school to find his mom passed out on the floor from what turned out to be a bad reaction to medications prescribed for a recent stroke.
Matthew not only got her cleaned up, but called 911 for help and then stood by her side as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
He also got all of his mom’s medications together for the rescue volunteers to take to the hospital, emailed his dad—the best way to reach him—to let him know what was going on—and watched his four-year-old brother till he got home.
Once Mrs. March was at the hospital, doctors determined she was dehydrated; she was released in a day or so.
Matthew was honored with the Troop’s Pop Secord Award last year for using his Scout first aid skills so well and that made him eligible for the national award.
Matthew admitted Monday he was nervous by all the attention; his next Scouting goal is to become an Eagle Scout.
“I’m very proud of him,” said Mrs. March. “It’s brought all of our family closer together. It’s great to see so many people here tonight to honor him.”
Also honored Monday for his work at the Esperance Elks Lodge, sponsors of Troop 105, was Scout Jonathan Diamond.
Jonathan served as “handyman” for the lodge, said Elk Chuck Johnson, helping out with everything from roofing to repairs. He also accompanies Mr. Johnson to the VA Hospital one a month to hand out snacks.

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ESPERANCE & ROTTERDAM
Boy Scout’s actions in crisis bring recognition
BY R.J. KELLY Gazette Reporter

    Matthew March will soon have a wall full of local and national honors and Boy Scout memorabilia in recognition of the quickthinking that might have saved his mother from choking after she passed out a year ago in their Rotterdam home.
    March, who is now 12 and a member of Troop 105 at the Esperance Elks Club, credits first aid merit badge skills with bringing him a national honor from the Boy Scouts of America this week.
    “I kind of went through it on instinct, it came second nature to me,” the seventhgrader said. He was recalling Dec. 13, 2006, when he arrived home to find his mother unconscious on the floor in a pool of her own vomit.
    “I think I had an allergic reaction to medication,” Melanie March said.
    The medication was to treat a stroke she had suffered, she said. She was home with her 4-year-old son, Jacob, when “I felt bad and tried to get to the bathroom, but I threw up and passed out on the floor for 1 1 /2 hours.”
    When Matthew came home, he tried to revive his mother “and he took care of everything,” she said.
    “I tried waking her up,” Matthew said. “She asked for a moist towel, then she passed out again,” he said.
    “I called my grandmother [Dawn March] on her cellphone … and she called the Rotterdam police,” Matthew said. In the meantime, he also e-mailed his father, Kevin March, at his job with Capital District Physicians Health Plan in Albany.
    While waiting for the ambulance, Matthew said, he got all his mom’s medications together so the medics would know what prescriptions she had been taking.
    After a few hours in an emergency room, everything turned out OK, Melanie March said. She’s feeling better now, although still occasionally feeling some effects from her stroke last year.
    “I’ve very proud of him,” March said of her son.
    In recognition of Matthew’s quick thinking and action, he received a national Award of Merit from the Boy Scouts of America on Monday, according to Duanesburg resident George Moyer, his grandfather and former Scoutmaster of Troop 105.
    The Duanesburg Town Board also honored Matthew this week with a certificate citing his “bravery and courage during a time of need,” according to Deputy Supervisor Tracey Rabideau.
    The Rotterdam Town Board also plans to give a similar honor at its Jan. 23 meeting, according to a town spokeswoman.
    Combined with an expected plaque from the Esperance Elks and a “Pop Secord First Aid Award” from the regional Otschodela Council of Boy Scouts, Matthew will have to clear space on his shelf of Scout honors, Moyer said.
    Only three of the national Boy Scout merit awards have been given in the Otsego, Schoharie and Delaware counties council region during the past 17 years, according to Moyer.
    Scouting has been a part of his life as long as he can remember, Matthew said.
    “When I was only 3 years old, I had a shirt that said ‘future Boy Scout of Troop 105,’ ” he said.
    His grandfather remembers riding Matthew around on his shoulders wearing the T-shirt.
    When he was old enough, Matthew joined the Cub Scouts. He was only an 11-year-old Tenderfoot Boy Scout when his mother fell ill.
    Now Matthew has made two ranks, up to First Class. He said he plans on going all the way to the top rank of Eagle.
    He’s already well on his way with a collection of 15 merit badges in various skills, he said.
    Besides Scouts, Matthew said, he likes to keep active with snow and water skiing, wake boarding, and soccer.
    Even before he helped his mother out, Matthew said, he was already familiar with hospitals.
    “I’m kind of accident prone,” he said, acknowledging that he’s had some broken bones and bruises from his activities.

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“I’m kind of accident prone,” he said, acknowledging that he’s had some broken bones and bruises from his activities.