Alabama state Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, suffered a heart attack Thursday in South Korea, where he was trying to recruit businesses and STEM teachers to Alabama, according to multiple news reports.

Melson’s colleague, state Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston, confirmed the incident on social media.

“I ask for your prayers for my friend Senator Tim Melson,” Kelley wrote on his Facebook page. “He had a heart attack and we need your prayers for him and his family. Thank you.”

Multiple news outlets reported Melson was in South Korea with other state lawmakers on the recruiting trip when he suddenly collapsed in a coffee shop.

State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, who was among the legislators on the trip, administered CPR to Melson, WAFF reported.

Efforts to reach Orr were not immediately successful.

Paramedics took Melson to a rural hospital along the demilitarized zone. He is set to be transferred to a larger hospital in Seoul. Melson is a liver transplant recipient, WBRC reported.

Melson’s family is traveling to South Korea to be by the senator.

Melson, a retired anesthesiologist and owner of Shoals Medical Trials, Inc., a medical research firm in Sheffield, was elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018 and 2022.

Melson and Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison, sponsored the medical cannabis legislation Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law in 2021.

Melson first offered the bill in 2019. That led to establishment of a Medical Cannabis Study Commission that held public hearings and recommended the legislation.