GALLATIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — For a high school student, the things she learned in class were put to the test in a very intense way. She's now sharing what happened in those minutes that have changed her life and the life of someone else.
18-year-old Katelyn Williams is a student at Liberty Creek High in Gallatin.
"I've been CPR certified about four times now," she said. "I want to be an ER nurse. I really think ER and trauma is the route I should go."
Katelyn's being taught by Dr. Megan Morley and Crystal Cornett at Liberty Creek High.
"I've been getting trained at a very high level," Katelyn said. "It's just like being at a hospital."
"We instill a level of confidence in our students to act, and that's the expectation," Crystal said.
That is exactly what happened.
One night, Katelyn was working as a lifeguard at Sumner County Family YMCA. A man in the locker room didn't realize he had pneumonia. He'd exerted himself exercising, and his heart had stopped. Someone told Katelyn.
"He was aspirating," Katelyn said.
With an ambulance still approaching, Katelyn had to act.
"I just immediately dropped down to the ground and started compressing," she remembered.
It was time to use what she'd learned in school.
At the same time, Paula Carney happened to be coming into the YMCA. Paula is a nurse at TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center. She and another CRNA ran into help Katelyn.
"He wasn't responding," Paula said of the man in the locker room. "We began CPR together."
"I was just thinking this is somebody's person," Katelyn said. "I know he has a family. I know he has people who care about him and love him."
"'You're going to do compressions. You're going to take over oxygenation,'" Paula said, remembering working together with Katelyn. "We just kinda rotated. After we worked on him for two minutes, we did have to deliver a shock. By the time EMS got there, he was breathing. Color looked great. They took him away."
"After they put him on the stretcher, I walked out of the locker room, and I just started crying," Katelyn said. "I was in hives. Unless you've given CPR, you don't understand that mental toll it takes on you, having this connection with somebody and not knowing if they're okay."
The day came, Katelyn went to visit the man in the locker room, Billy Austin.
"A kid Katelyn's age would be the one to save me, that's unbelievable," Billy said. "It's not that she's only a lifeguard on duty that day, she cared about the person she was helping."
It's not lost on Billy how many things needed to happen to save him. A team at Liberty Creek High taught Katelyn. Katelyn was on the clock at the YMCA. Paula was there to help.
"A lot of people would say when all those things align, it's too good to be true, but I know it's too good to not be God," Billy said. "That's the only answer that makes sense to me."
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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-Rebecca Schleicher
