By Steve Heath | The Times-Post
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PENDLETON — They came in as lifeguards and left as heroes.
Five teenage lifeguards — Emily Brown, 17; Ella Dixon, 17; Grace McKinney, 15; Madison Painter, 17; and Preston Dixon, 19 — put their training to use when a 16-year-old female swimmer was face down and unresponsive shortly after diving into the Falls Park Alvin D. Brown Memorial Swimming Pool on June 27.
Pool manager Londa Bennett and Pendleton Emergency Ambulance chief Donnie Meyer replayed the events to Pendleton Park Board prior to its July 24 meeting.
After the two recalled the youths’ acts of bravery, Community Hospital Anderson President and CEO Beth Tharp and VP Community Engagement/CFO Tom Bannon presented each lifeguard with a Community Hero Award.
“None of us had ever worked together, but we came together and helped save that girl’s life. It was amazing,” said Preston Dixon, a graduate of Pendleton Heights High School and sophomore at Ball State University.
“The five of us will have a bond now that we never had before,” he added.
All but Preston Dixon are first-year lifeguards.
Bennett teared up when recounting the story to the board and the crowd in attendance.
She said it was the most “serious” incident at the pool in her 13 years.
The emergency started at 12:33 p.m., when 911 was called, Bennett said.
The lifeguards and the soon-arriving Pendleton ambulance team were able to revive the swimmer, and by 12:48 p.m., the victim was on the way to the hospital, medical equipment had been put back and lifeguards and Bennett were in a debriefing meeting.
“Fifteen minutes, and those are teenagers,” Bennett, pointing to her lifeguard crew, said at the meeting.
“It was pretty phenomenal,” Meyer said of the youngsters work. “They were trained well.
“It’s not every day you get someone that will risk their life to save someone else’s.”
Brown, a senior at Pendleton Heights High School, was the first on the scene.
She said she saw the girl jump off the diving board into the water, but didn’t see her come up.
She then saw the girl face down in the pool. Brown blew her whistle four times notifying the other lifeguards of the seriousness of the situation.
“She was unconscious and had a super-weak pulse,” Brown said.
“When I first saw her, I thought, ‘Oh my, God!’ Then, your instincts set in and you remember every single thing you have been trained to do,” Brown said. “You laser in to what you are supposed to do.
“God was definitely on our side,” she said.